The effects of understanding rules and a worked example on the acquisition of procedural knowledge and task performance

Previous research (for example, Bonner and Walker, 1994) has investigated the impact of alternative forms of instruction and practice on both the acquisition of procedural knowledge and task performance. Responding to the call to consider alternative forms of instruction, this study reports the results of an experiment designed to distinguish between the effects of understanding rules and a worked example. Worked examples (such as previously prepared working papers, analysis sheets and spreadsheet templates) are of particular interest as they constitute an important source, frequently used by novice accountants, for understanding and performing various tasks.
The results indicate that understanding rules increase task performance through the acquisition of procedural knowledge, while a worked example provides task-specific heuristics that increase task performance but not procedural knowledge. The different benefits of the two forms of instruction emphasise the importance of matching instruction methods to learning objectives. Furthermore, combining the two forms of instruction lead to the highest levels of task performance even with limited practice and no feedback.
JEL classification: I20; M41     

A Regime‐Switching Approach to Modeling Rental Prices of U.K. Real Estate Sectors

This article uses regime‐switching models of the threshold type to analyze the adjustment process of rental prices for three U.K. commercial real estate sectors over the period 1974–2008. The nonlinear models outperform their linear counterparts in in‐sample fit. Their out‐of‐sample forecasting ability is better whenever the corresponding linear models contain a significant amount of neglected nonlinearity. Regime switches are triggered when the growth rates of rental price exceed certain threshold levels. For the industrial and retail sectors such regime switches occur in situations of strong excess demand, for the office sector they occur when there is strong excess supply.     

Communicating quality: a unified model of disclosure and signalling

Firms communicate product quality to consumers through a variety of channels. Economic models of such communication take two alternative forms when quality is exogenous: (i) disclosure of quality through a credible direct claim; or (ii) signalling of quality via producer actions that influence buyers' beliefs about quality. In general, these two literatures have ignored one another. We argue that firms should be viewed as choosing which means of communication they will employ. We show that integration of these two alternatives leads to new implications about disclosure, signalling, firm preferences over type, and the social efficiency of the channel of communication employed.     

The use of Research Planning Diagrams

Abstract . The use of Research Planning Diagrams as an aid for project planning and evaluation is described. A computerized simulation technique for the analysis of the probabilities associated with a diagram is illustrated by means of a worked example.