14

Research Instrument

To examine the research questions, a mailed survey questionnaire was employed to obtain subjects' interpretations of the IAS uncertainty XPTESSICHS listed in Table 1. The questionnaire was comprised of three parts and four versions of the questionnaire were developed: an all­Englısh version(E), an all-German version(G), and two mixed-language versions(GE1 and GE2). The all-Englısh language version of the questionHhire 1s provided ın the Appendix.

Part 1 of'the all-English questionnaire(E) contained the 16 expressions listed in Table 1. Subjects were asked to assıgn probabilities to the uncertainty expressions using a scale of 0 to 100. A non-accounting example was provided in the instructions to enhance understanding of the task. To mitigate an order effect, two versions of the questionnaire were created in which the uncertainty expressions were placed in different random arrangements. Part 2 of the questionnaire asked respondents to indicate the range of probabilities associated with 6 of the 16 expressions in Part 1. Piıtz(1980) suggests that uncertainty expressions best describe a range of numerical probabilities rather than single values. Demographic information was collected in Part 3 of the questionnaire.

The all-German version was identical to the English version with the following exceptions. Due to there being two translations for"probable" and three for"no longer probable," the German version(G) of the questionnaire included 19 expressions corresponding to the 16 expressions in English. Additional demographic questions asked about English fluency and professional experience working in an English-speaking country. These questions were asked to

examine whether exposure to the English language and/or the Anglo culture might influence