Identifying and Closing Gaps in the Judgment and Behavior of Auditing Students and Staff Auditors.

Abstract Academics and practitioners have expended considerable efforts in designing materials that bring real-life accounting experiences into the classroom. This study provides an example of how empirical research can contribute to these efforts by providing additional direction for future curricula reform efforts. Students and professional auditors were asked to perform a simplified, yet realistic, hypothetical audit task. Multivariate and univariate procedures were used to investigate the subjects' evidence search behavior and their reactions to audit evidence (i.e., belief revisions). Students and staff auditors with limited experience were found to be more inclined to employ evidence search strategies that exhibited confirmatory tendencies than were experienced auditors. Experienced auditors, on the other hand, were more likely to employ balanced evidence search strategies that were slightly conditioned with a conservative bias. In addition, students reacted more severely to both confirming and disconfirming evidence cues than did professional auditors. The results suggest that simulated audit cases and role-playing scenarios can be used to help students and recently hired auditors monitor and control their confirmatory tendencies and to develop a conservative nature consistent with more experienced auditors.