communicate low probabilities to those that communicate high probabilities.

To test whether the mental representation of uncertainty phrases is affected by the language ın which they are expressed, Davidson and Chrisman(1993) examined the interpretation of uncertainty expressions found in International Accounting Standards between Anglophone and Francophone accounting students in Canada. They suggested that differences in mental representations can exist in two ways. Either the mean probability associated with an uncertainty expression Is not the same in each language, indicating a difference in the concept conveyed by the expression, or the degree of consensus on the probability associated with an uncertainty expression 1s not the same in each language, indicating a difference in the precision of the expression. Davıdson and Chrisman(1993) compared mean probabilities assigned to the Englısh original and French translation and found differences in 13 of 27 expressions examined. In addition, they found significant differences in the variance of the probabilities for 14 of the 27 expressions, with the English expressions generally having lower variance. The authors infer from this result that the English expressions convey a more precise meaning than the French equivalent. In a related study, Davidson and Chrisman(1994) found similar results for uncertainty expressions utilized in Canadian accounting and auditing standards.

The work of Davidson and Chrisman suggests that the translation of uncertainty phrases from one language to another can lead to non-similar interpretations by two different linguistic groups located in the same country. The current study addresses the related question of whether different linguistic groups in different countries interpret uncertainty expressions similarly. By including different nationalities in the study, national culture is introduced as an additional factor

that could affect these interpretations. The following section considers literature in the areas of