The article addresses ongoing debates in the study of political knowledge and voting behavior. The article identifies significant divergences in previous work which may explain why such debates persist, including in the measurement of political knowledge and the inclusion of confounding variables. The article remedies these issues in an observational study examining how political knowledge affects the impact of spatial considerations and cognitive shortcuts on the vote. The article also contributes the first randomized experiment on this research question in the literature. Using the framework of conjoint analysis, the experiment evaluates how political knowledge affects the impact of spatial considerations and cognitive shortcuts on the vote. The article hypothesizes that political knowledge will increase the impact of spatial considerations on the vote but will not modify the impact of cognitive shortcuts. This expectation is supported in both the observational and experimental results.

Spatial closures are commonly used by Australian fisheries managers to alter fishing patterns. To evaluate different fishing closures, however, fishery scientists have to understand and model the spatiotemporal interactions between fish stocks and fishing fleets. We develop a deterministic, stationary, per-recuit, age-structured simulation model to assess different spatial closure strategies, and use date from the Torres Strait tiger prawn fishery, Penaeus esculentus, as a working example. Our results show that selection of an optimum spatial closure largely depends on the relative importance given to changes of the different utility functions evaluated (yield, value, egg production). We show that, on average, with a spatial closure yield-per-recruit would decrease, but also show that value-per-recruit may increase 10% with the appropriate closure. Our results suggest that egg-per-recruit would always increase in the presence of a closure. By incorporating parameter uncertainty within the simulation model we predict the uncertainty associated with alternative closure strategies, and thus provide valuable information for the decision-making process.

Eggs and larvae of the bollworms Earias spp. followed a uniform distribution on G 27, LD 133, LD 230 (Arboreum) and F 414 (hirsutum) cotton varieties in Ludhiana (Punjab). Clump distribution of Earias eggs and larvae on the four cotton varieties may result from environmental heterogeneity. Although Earias gravid females laid maximum eggs at the top (41–50 cm) plant canopy mostly, examination of the whole length of the plants is suggested for sampling Earias on the four varieties.

Sample sizes of 10 plants in arboreum and seven in the hirsutum variety resulted in reliable estimates of population at 5% risk level. Injured fruiting bodies and larval numbers were significantly and positively correlated.