Abstract This paper reports the results of an experiment which extends previous research that examined auditors' analytical review judgments. Practicing auditors were provided with a limited amount of either prior year audited or prior year audited and current year unaudited data on which to base their analytical review judgments. Both increasing and decreasing data trends and trend reversals were examined in an explicit analytical review setting using nine-month unaudited data. Using a different experimental design and different statistical analyses, the findings of prior research regarding auditor point estimates of audited values and noninvestigation intervals were corroborated-the auditors' judgments were influenced by the unaudited data. Results also show the auditors were more influenced by unaudited values that represented a trend reversal or a decrease from prior years. However, the effect of unaudited values on auditors' implied investigations was found to be somewhat limited. Further analysis indicated that the auditors' non- investigation bounds apparently were influenced in a way that mitigated the effect of the unaudited values on the implied investigations.
Heintz et al. (Wed,) studied this question.