An Examination of the Effect of Presentation Format on Auditors' Expected Value Judgments.

Abstract This article investigates the psychological impact of presentation format on auditors' expected value judgments. Analytical procedures often provide important evidence for the external auditor for initial planning, substantive tests, and for the overall review at the conclusion of an audit. Common to all analytical procedures is the determination of an expected value for an account or ratio under investigation. In using many analytical procedures, the auditor is required to infer an expected value for an account or ratio through the application of professional judgment. This article reports the results of an experiment involving auditor judgment in an analytical procedure task. The experiment required auditors to use historical information to infer an expected value for a revenue account. Currently, such information may easily be presented either in a tabular format or a graphical format. For this article, the author conducted an experiment in which practicing auditors were asked to perform an analytical procedure task. The participants, task, manipulated variables, and response variable are described in the article.