The Influence of Information Order Effects and Trait Professional Skepticism on Auditors' Belief Revisions

The Influence of Information Order Effects and Trait Professional Skepticism on Auditors' Belief Revisions
Author: Kristina Yankova
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN: 9783658088729

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Kristina Yankova addresses the question of what role professional skepticism plays in the context of cognitive biases (the so-called information order effects) in auditor judgment. Professional skepticism is a fundamental concept in auditing. Despite its immense importance to audit practice and the voluminous literature on this issue, professional skepticism is a topic which still involves more questions than answers. The work provides important theoretical and empirical insights into the behavioral implications of professional skepticism in auditing. Contents Belief Revision and Information Order Effects Professional Skepticism Empirical Analysis Target Groups Researchers and students in the fields of accounting and auditing Practitioners in these areas The Author Dr. Kristina Yankova completed her doctoral studies under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Annette Köhler at the Chair of Accounting and Auditing at the Mercator School of Management, University of Duisburg-Essen.

The Influence of Information Order Effects and Trait Professional Skepticism on Auditors’ Belief Revisions

The Influence of Information Order Effects and Trait Professional Skepticism on Auditors’ Belief Revisions
Author: Kristina Yankova
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2015-02-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3658088710

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Kristina Yankova addresses the question of what role professional skepticism plays in the context of cognitive biases (the so-called information order effects) in auditor judgment. Professional skepticism is a fundamental concept in auditing. Despite its immense importance to audit practice and the voluminous literature on this issue, professional skepticism is a topic which still involves more questions than answers. The work provides important theoretical and empirical insights into the behavioral implications of professional skepticism in auditing.

Behavioural Aspects of Auditors' Evidence Evaluation

Behavioural Aspects of Auditors' Evidence Evaluation
Author: Magda Abou-Seada
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2017-11-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351761250

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This title was first published in 2003. Based on psychological research, auditing studies have focused on 'belief revision' as a way of understanding how auditors evaluate evidence. Moreover a belief revision process is consistent with US auditing standards. UK standards on the other hand do not appear to give guidance on the process to follow when evaluating evidence. Research in the US indicates that auditors do in fact follow a belief revision process in accordance with US standards. Employing survey research (based on personal interviews with a number of experienced UK auditors) this book demonstrates how auditors prefer to be described as following the open mind approach. Building on the findings of the interviews the book then describes an experimental study to investigate the differences between the belief revision and open mind approaches in terms of their effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. The book concludes that the belief revision approach would improve the efficiency of the audit process without affecting its effectiveness or outcomes.

Primacy Effects and the Role of Risk in Auditor Belief-Revision Processes

Primacy Effects and the Role of Risk in Auditor Belief-Revision Processes
Author: Brenda H. Anderson
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

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Numerous studies in the audit judgment literature provide evidence indicating that auditors can be susceptible to recency effects. This study extends the research by examining auditor susceptibility to primacy, an order effect, which, like recency, can lead to suboptimal audit-planning decisions (see Ashton and Ashton 1988) and yet, unlike recency, has received very little attention in the accounting literature. Specifically, the research investigates whether primacy effects in auditor belief revisions are a conditional function of the level of inherent risk present in the audit environment (high/low) and the nature of the information contained in the latter portion of the information sequence (e.g., whether the information is positive or negative with respect to the client?s internal controls).The results, consistent with expectations, indicate that auditors are susceptible to primacy effects when making likelihood of error and audit-hour planning judgments in settings that are relatively low in inherent risk, and such effects are due to less integration of late positive information in low- as compared to high-risk conditions. No evidence of primacy was found for either judgment when the inherent risk associated with the audit setting was high and, auditors did not differentially revise their beliefs across inherent risk conditions for late negative information. The findings indicate that primacy is essentially the result of insufficient integration of late positive information in low inherent risk settings, suggesting that primacy may lead to overauditing and thus, an inefficient use of audit resources.

Professional Skepticism and Auditor Judgment

Professional Skepticism and Auditor Judgment
Author: Christopher Koch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

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In two experiments with experienced auditors, we examine whether and how trait skepticism mitigates the tendency to place a greater emphasis on the most recently presented information, the so-called recency bias. We measure trait skepticism using the Hurtt scale (Hurtt 2010), manipulate information order, and vary presentation mode across two experiments. When information is presented sequentially (experiment 1), we find that auditors who score higher on the subconstructs of trait skepticism related to evidence examination are less likely to overweight contrasting evidence and thus are less prone to the recency bias. When information is presented simultaneously and the task is complex (experiment 2), we observe that auditors with higher trait skepticism exhibit higher cognitive effort which mitigates the recency bias. Our main contribution is the identification and detailed investigation of trait skepticism as a factor mitigating the recency bias, thereby providing evidence for its behavioral manifestation.

Auditing

Auditing
Author: Lawrence A. Ponemon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1461231906

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This book has been prepared for those readers who want to maintain their knowledge of current developments in the field of behavioral research as applied to auditing. The articles and papers presented in this volume were selected because they will contribute to the knowledge and advancement of not only the individual researcher or educator, but also of the profession. It is our belief that if research endeavors may be viewed as having stages of life, then the field of behavioral research in auditing is in its genesis. Almost twenty years ago, in speaking of the state of the art of psychology, William Hays expressed a most·appropriate thought: Experimental evidence is accumulating at a rapid rate in psychology, and efforts at constructing psychological theories with mathematical deductive power are constantly being made. However, it seems safe to say that it will be sometime before there are psychological laws and theories on a par with those of physics. The absence of a general theory does not imply that those relations are missing or unhpportant in psychology; the discovery and specification of relations is the process by which those theories are built. (Hays, 1973, p. 40.) In the first chapter, "Experimental Research and the Distinctive Features of Accounting Settings," Robert Libby presents an encompassing and knowledgeable summary of the changes that have taken place during the last decade in human information processing research in accounting and experimental economics as it relates to those issues.

A Study of Professional Skepticism

A Study of Professional Skepticism
Author: Carmen Olsen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2017
Genre: Accounting
ISBN: 9783319498973

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Professional Skepticism and Auditor Cognitive Performance in a Hypothesis Testing Task

Professional Skepticism and Auditor Cognitive Performance in a Hypothesis Testing Task
Author: Marietta Peytcheva
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

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The study examines the joint effects of two different types of state skepticism prompts, as well as the effect of the personality trait of professional skepticism, on auditor cognitive performance in a hypothesis-testing task. Seventy-eight audit students and 85 practicing auditors examine an audit case and determine the evidence needed to test the validity of a management's assertion in a Wason selection task (Wason 1966, 1968, 1969; Cosmides 1989). The 2x2 between-participants experiment manipulates the presence of a professional skepticism prompt and the presence of a cheater-detection prompt (Cosmides 1989; Cosmides and Tooby 2008a). The personality trait of professional skepticism is measured with Hurtt's (2010) scale. The presence of a professional skepticism prompt is found to improve cognitive performance in the sample of students, but not in the sample of auditors. The presence of a cheater-detection prompt has no significant effect on performance in the student or auditor sample. The personality trait of professional skepticism is a significant predictor of cognitive performance in the sample of students but not in the sample of auditors. These findings suggest that increasing the states of skepticism or suspicion toward the client firm's management may have no incremental effect on the normative hypothesis testing performance of experienced auditors, who are consistently exposed to the importance of being skeptical in the course of their work. However, actively encouraging skeptical mindsets in novice auditors is likely to improve their cognitive performance in hypothesis testing tasks.

Auditing Teams

Auditing Teams
Author: Mara Cameran
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134825609

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The recent audit failures which have rocked financial markets worldwide have accentuated the need for a better understanding of the link between risk, control and audit quality; as well as emphasising the need to open the "black box" of the ways auditing firms actually function. Reflecting these imperatives, Auditing Teams unravels the organizational and management issues in audit firms that are key to achieving effectiveness in service provision. Specifically, this key research reflects upon the relevance and dynamics of auditing teams and their impact on auditing quality, and specifically responding to the recent claim from regulators which highlights auditing team characteristics as the source of wide variations in quality. By leveraging different perspectives – auditing, management accounting, organization and psychology – to investigate auditing teams and basing on evidence collected from the professional world, this book will provide a unique insight into the role of auditing teams on audit quality. It will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students in auditing, as well as to practitioners and regulators in the field.

Systems Development Methods for the Next Century

Systems Development Methods for the Next Century
Author: W. Gregory Wojtkowski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 562
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1461559154

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This book is a result of the ISD'97, Sixth International Conference on Information Systems Development-Methods and Tools, Theory and Practice held August 11-14, 1997 in Boise, Idaho, USA. The purpose of this Conference was to address the issues facing academia and industry when specifying, developing, managing and improving software systems. The selection of papers was carried out by the International Program Committee. All papers were reviewed in advance by at least three people. Papers were judged according to their originality, relevance and presentation quality. All papers were judged purely on their own merits, independently of other submissions. This year's Information Systems Development Conference-ISD'97 is the first ISD conference being held in the US. ISD was brought into existence almost ten years ago. It continues the fine tradition of the first Polish-Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Information Systems Development Methodologies, held in Gdansk-Poland in 1988. ISD'98 will be held in Bled, Slovenia. ISD'97 consists not only of the technical program represented in these proceedings, but also tutorials on improved software testing and end-user information systems and workshop on sharing knowledge within international high technology industries that are intended for both, the research and business communities. We would like to thank the authors of papers accepted for ISD'97 who all made gal lant efforts to provide me with electronic copies of their manuscripts conforming to com mon guidelines. We thank them for thoughtfully responding to reviewers comments and carefully preparing their final contributions.