A STUDY OF THE PROPERTIES OF THE ACCESSIBLE KNOWLEDGE OF FOUR NOVICE AUDITORS DURING PERFORMANCE OF A FIELD TASK By

The level of an auditor’s expertise during performance of a field task is directly related to the accessibility of that auditor’s knowledge. This paper presents initial findings from a multi-part study of novice task behavior examining the effect on the accessibility of an auditor’s knowledge brought about by experienced-induced changes in the properties of the knowledge accessed during performance of a field task. It contributes to the goals of behavioral research in auditing by presenting basic descriptive research on how the accessibility of the knowledge driving task behavior changes with the moment-to-moment evolution of the task environment as an auditor progresses toward a solution. Research from the field of Psychology strongly supports an expectation of a relationship between an auditor’s accessible knowledge and the task environment as it is transformed by that auditor’s task behaviors. Although auditing behavioral research has explicitly or by implication examined specific aspects of the relationship between environment and auditor judgment, decision making, and behavior, the link has never been subjected to empirical examination in a dynamic and broadly generalized manner