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Effect of different types of feedback on the level of auditors’ configural information processing
Author(s) -
Leung Patrick W.,
Trotman Ken T.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
accounting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.645
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-629X
pISSN - 0810-5391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-629x.2007.00238.x
Subject(s) - judgement , task (project management) , information processing , audit , cognition , cognitive psychology , psychology , outcome (game theory) , information processing theory , computer science , accounting , business , economics , microeconomics , management , neuroscience , political science , law
Previous audit judgement research has emphasized the importance of auditors processing information configurally (i.e. jointly considering the impact of different cues). This paper examines the impact of four different forms of feedback (outcome, task properties, cognitive and combined) on increasing the extent of configural information processing by auditors. We find that task properties, cognitive and combined (task properties plus cognitive) feedback all lead to increased configural information processing. There is no impact of outcome feedback. We also find that the extent of configural processing is positively associated with our measure of judgement performance. We discuss the implications of the results for audit firms.