Order effects and memory for evidence in individual versus group decision making in auditing
✍ Scribed by Sunita S. Ahlawat
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 188 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-3257
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Sequential processing of evidence may lead to recency eect, a potential bias in judgment. The present research seeks to extend the literature on recency eects by assessing the potential moderating in¯uence of team work: whether group decision making moderates the severity of recency eects predicted by Hogarth and Einhorn (1992), and whether group processing in¯uences the accuracy of, and con®dence in memory for evidence. Experienced auditors from a Big-6 accounting ®rm made audit judgments, either individually or as groups. They were randomly assigned to one of two levels of evidence presentation order. After performing the judgment task, participants completed two evidence recognition tests. Consistent with prior ®ndings, recency eects on judgments were observed, but only for individuals. Group judgments or audit reports were not aected by recency. Order eects, however, did not translate into dierent choices of audit reports, and did not persist in memories of either individuals or groups. As expected, group memory was more accurate than individual memory and groups were more con®dent than individuals. Overall, con®dence in accurate memories was greater than in inaccurate ones.