Auditor belief revisions in a performance auditing setting: An application of the belief-adjustment model

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.