Story Comprehension by Adults with Right Hemisphere Brain Damage

Background: Right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) manifests itself in many ways. The repercussions affecting language function are distinct; studies in discourse comprehension in RHD groups suggest that this population struggles with the mental structures necessary for processing, leading to difficulty when a task requires that participants modify their established mental models or alter first interpretations. The current investigation was based on an experiment in Rapp et al.'s (2001) study that suggests that trait-based models of discourse processing affect online reading. Participants' response times slowed when the final sentences of the story stimuli were inconsistent with character traits instantiated in the beginning of the stories.Aims: The current study examined the nature of discourse comprehension difficulties in adults with right hemisphere brain damage, specifically observing how participants with RHD performed in accuracy and response times when presented stories with inconsistencies in character trait portrayal.Methods and Procedures: Participants included eight adults with RHD and five with no brain damage (NBD). Participants listened to 20 stimuli featuring either a neutral or trait-instantiating first portion (describing a specific trait of a character), followed by a trait-consistent or trait-inconsistent final sentence. Asked to make a rapid judgment concerning whether the final sentence of each story fit with the personality of the character featured in that story, the subjects chose "yes" or "no" on a manual response box. Ancillary tasks were used to assist in classifying the clinical characteristics of participants and to provide potential alternative interpretations of participants' performances.Outcomes and Results: The results of this study suggest that when character traits are strongly negative and/or strongly implied, adults with RHD appear to incorporate these character biases in their narrative processing, though these biases do not improve their judgments of trait-inconsistent information. As predicted, there were no group differences in trait-instantiating stories with the trait-consistent endings, but the participants with RHD were less accurate in the trait-inconsistent condition than the group with NBD. Supporting the study's main hypothesis, results indicate that adults with RHD are as able as control participants to accurately judge trait-consistent information, but are at a disadvantage when dealing with incongruity

Relays and Marathons: The Effects of Succession Choice Surrounding CEO Turnover Announcements

This study examines marathon successions, which I define as instances where a permanent successor is not chosen at the time of a CEO departure. Marathons have become increasingly prevalent over the last ten years and represent the majority of succession decisions surrounding forced turnovers from 1995-2005. Firms implementing marathon successions around forced turnovers have strong internal governance structures, as measured by board size, director ownership, percentage of outside directors, and dual Chairman/CEO appointments. In addition, I find little evidence supporting the argument that extending the succession process through the use of a marathon leads to increases in uncertainty and/or agency costs in the form of horizon problems. Lastly, I find positive and significant announcement returns for forced marathon successions. These results provide insight into the succession process and the role of strong internal corporate governance in evaluating and implementing succession decisions

Cash Holdings and CEO Turnover

Chief Executive Offier (CEO) characteristics, such as the level of risk aversion, are known to affect corporate financial policies, and therefore are likely to impact corporate liquidity decisions. We examine changes in cash holdings around CEO turnover events, a period in which discrete changes in managerial preferences and abilities are likely to have the most dramatic effect on cash holdings. Our results suggest that cash holdings increase significantly following forced departures. The increase is persistent over the successor's tenure and is robust to controls for the standard firm-level determinants of cash holdings and corporate governance characteristics. We find that higher cash holdings arise mainly through the management of net working capital, as opposed to asset sales or reductions in investment. This suggests that the changes are optimal for shareholders rather than an indication of serious agency problems. This conclusion is supported further by our finding that the marginal value of cash does not decrease following the turnover.12 month embargo; Published: 1 July 2016This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Do board gender quotas affect firm value? Evidence from California Senate Bill No. 826

We examine stock market reactions, direct costs of compliance, and board adjustments to California Senate Bill No. 826 (SB 826), the first mandated board gender diversity quota in the United States. Announcement returns average -1.2% and are robust to the use of multiple methodologies. Returns are more negative when the gap between the mandated number and the pre-SB 826 number of female directors is larger. These negative effects are less severe for firms with a greater supply of female candidates, and for those that can more easily replace male directors or attract female directors. For small firms, the annual direct cost of compliance through board expansion is non-trivial, representing 0.76% of market value. Following SB 826, firms significantly increase female board representation, and the increase is greater for firms in California than control firms in other states.36 month embargo; published online: 1 February 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Director Connectedness: Monitoring Efficacy and Career Prospects

We examine a specific channel through which director connectedness may improve monitoring: financial reporting quality. We find that the connectedness of independent, nonco-opted audit committee members has a positive effect on financial reporting quality and accounting conservatism. The effect is not significant for non-audit committee or co-opted audit committee members. Our results are robust to tests designed to mitigate self-selection. Consistent with connected directors being valuable, the market reacts more negatively to the deaths of highly connected directors than to the deaths of less connected directors. Better connected directors also have better career prospects, suggesting they have greater incentives to monitor.12 month embargo; published online: 14 February 2018This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]