TY - JOUR
T1 - Auditor belief revisions in a performance auditing setting
T2 - An application of the belief-adjustment model
AU - Pei, Ker-Wei
AU - Reed, Sarah A.
AU - Koch, Bruce S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The process by which new information is integrated with current beliefs has long been an important area of research in decision making. One important focus of this research is the study of order effects on belief revision. However, the research reveals that the order of information presentation sometimes has no effect, may induce primacy effects, or may cause recency effects on belief revision (e.g. Nisbett & Ross, 1980). Recently, Hogarth & Einhorn (1990) proposed and validated a descriptive model, called the "belief-adjustment model", to account for the mixed results found in this literature. The model posits that decision makers tend to use a simple anchoring-and-adjustment strategy for belief revision, and that this tendency and their adaptive behaviors to the characteristics of the decision tasks yield "a complex pattern of predictions concerning order effects" (Hogarth & Einhorn, 1990, p.3). The purpose of the present research is to test the belief-adjustment model predictions in a performance auditing context. This research effort is motivated By the following three observations. First, most recent applications of the belief-adjustment model have been conducted in financial auditing contexts (e.g. Ashton & Ashton, 1988; Tubbs et al., 1990; for a literature review see Asare & Messier, 1990). However, the decision environment of a performance audit is significantly different from that of a financial audit. The objective of a * This research is partially funded by a summer research grant to the first author by the FGIA program of Arizona State University. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments by Robin M. Hogarth, Robert Ashton and three anonymous referees on the earlier versions of this paper.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1992/2
Y1 - 1992/2
N2 - Based upon Hogarth and Einhorn's "belief-adjustment model", the present research tested the model's recency effects prediction in a "performance auditing" context using state auditors. The results showed that the auditors' "belief revisions" were subject to the recency effects predicted by the model. The results also validated an important assumption of the model that serial position effects were absent in a short evidence series. That is, serial position had no effect on the subject's subjective evaluation of evidence. Finally, analyses of the subjects' intermediate belief changes suggested that they displayed a "confirmatory attitude" towards evidence rather than a "disconfirmatory attitude" found in the prior studies conducted in financial auditing contexts.
AB - Based upon Hogarth and Einhorn's "belief-adjustment model", the present research tested the model's recency effects prediction in a "performance auditing" context using state auditors. The results showed that the auditors' "belief revisions" were subject to the recency effects predicted by the model. The results also validated an important assumption of the model that serial position effects were absent in a short evidence series. That is, serial position had no effect on the subject's subjective evaluation of evidence. Finally, analyses of the subjects' intermediate belief changes suggested that they displayed a "confirmatory attitude" towards evidence rather than a "disconfirmatory attitude" found in the prior studies conducted in financial auditing contexts.
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U2 - 10.1016/0361-3682(92)90009-H
DO - 10.1016/0361-3682(92)90009-H
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:38249014146
VL - 17
SP - 169
EP - 183
JO - Accounting, Organizations and Society
JF - Accounting, Organizations and Society
SN - 0361-3682
IS - 2
ER -