Jacob M. Rose

The effects of system design alternatives on the acquisition of tax knowledge from a computerized tax decision aid

Accounting firms are intensifying their reliance on experiential learning, and experience increasingly involves the use of computerized decision aids [Messier, W. (1995) Research in and development of audit decision aids. In R. H. Ashton & A. H. Ashton, Judgment and decision making in accounting and auditing (pp. 207‐230). New York: Cambridge University Press]. Accountants are expected to learn from automated decision aid use, because the aids are not always available when dealing with the aid’s topical matter, and the knowledge inherent in the aid is needed for competency on broader issues. To facilitate knowledge acquisition and explain the logic of the underlying processes, computerized decision aids provide the rationale for their calculations in the form of online explanations. We study how the location of explanations in a computerized decision aid aAects learning from its use. Specifically, this research extends the existing literature by using a framework for the study of learning from decision aid use and by using cognitive load theory to explain the failure of certain decision aid design alternatives to promote learning. We define learning as the acquisition of problem-type schemata, and an experiment is performed in which cognitive load is manipulated by the placement of explanations in a computerized tax decision aid to determine its eAect on schema acquisition. Schemata are general knowledge structures used for basic comprehension, and cognitive load refers to the burden placed on working memory when acquiring schemata. We find that increased cognitive load produced by the location of explanations in a decision aid leads to reduced schema acquisition. Our results indicate that when explanations in a computerized decision aid are integrated into its problem solving steps, cognitive load is reduced and users acquire more knowledge from aid use. This appears to be an important design consideration for accounting firms buying or building computerized decision aids. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cellular Telephones and Driving Performance: The Effects of Attentional Demands on Motor Vehicle Crash Risk

This study examines the effects of conversation mode and split-attention communication training on driving performance. The study is based on an experiment where drivers with and without communication training (pilots vs. nonpilots) completed a simulated driving course while involved in one of three conversation modes: no conversation, conversation with passenger, or conversation on a hands-free cellular telephone. Results indicate that cellular telephone conversations consume more attention and interfere more with driving than passenger conversations. Cell phone conversations lack the nonverbal cues available during close-contact conversations and conversation participants expend significant cognitive resources to compensate for the lack of such cues. The results also demonstrate that communication training may reduce the hazardous effects of cell phone conversations on driving performance.

The effects of multimedia-induced affective states on recall and decision-making by individual investors

Abstract Kida et al. [Account., Organ., Soc. 23 (1998) 451.] found that affective reactions to financial data are easier to recall than the data itself, and that memories for numerical data are often reconstructed to match affective responses. They also demonstrated that investment decisions are influenced by affective responses to financial data. Given that multimedia has become an integral component of financial disclosures, and that multimedia is known to create affective responses, potential exists for multimedia presented in conjunction with financial data to alter recall patterns and influence decision-making. This study involves two experiments where subjects analyze financial data and affective states are manipulated with multimedia presentations peripherally related to the financial data. In the first study, memory reconstruction patterns of subjects receiving multimedia that induces either a positive or negative affective state are compared. The second study investigates the effects of media-induced moods on investment decisions, where a negative or positive affective state is induced with multimedia during analysis of one company, and no affective state is induced during subsequent evaluation of alternative companies. The principal findings from this research are: (1) Multimedia presented in conjunction with financial data can cause users to reconstruct memories to match the affective responses to the multimedia; (2) Multimedia-induced affective responses influence investment decisions; and (3) The recall and decision-making of individual investors with a high need for cognition are not influenced to the same extent by multimedia as the recall and decision-making of investors with a low need for cognition.

Measurement of Knowledge Structures Acquired Through Instruction, Experience, and Decision Aid Use

This study investigates a method for measuring knowledge structure development in novice accountants by extending Bonner and Walker (1994), which examined the effects of instruction and experience on the acquisition of declarative and procedural knowledge. We employ Pathfinder network scaling, a recently developed and validated measure of knowledge structure acquisition, to determine whether the combinations of instruction and experience previously found to be effective in promoting declarative and procedural knowledge acquisition result in the development of expert-like knowledge structures. Further, we examine the effectiveness of a simple decision aid in promoting the acquisition of expert-like knowledge structures through experience with the decision aid. Results from two laboratory experiments indicate that Pathfinder-based measures of knowledge structure can effectively capture the effects of training and decision aid use on the development of expertise. The findings suggest that assessments of knowledge structures are valuable tools for measuring the effectiveness of training programs, and such assessments can be applied in decision domains where traditional measures of knowledge acquisition are insufficient or infeasible. Finally, the results indicate that properly designed decision aids can impart expert-like knowledge structures to novice decision makers, and these knowledge structures are the key to expertise.

A Service‐Learning Course in Accounting Information Systems

This study reports the results of a quasi‐experiment involving 90 master of accounting students. The students participated in one of three course types: full‐immersion service learning with a supporting textbook, full‐immersion service learning without a supporting textbook, or nonservice learning using case‐based projects with deliverables identical to those in the service‐learning courses. Results indicate that full‐immersion service learning increased student satisfaction, student perceptions of ability, self‐confidence in chosen careers, desire to study accounting information systems, and performance on complex data modeling tasks. The only performance decrement noted was in performance on a topic that was loosely related to the service‐learning project. These results should be of interest to faculty and administrators who might be contemplating the value of integrating service learning in the accounting curriculum.

Performance evaluations based on financial information: how do managers use situational information?

Organizations regularly use budgets as benchmarks for performance, and budgets represent a key control feature for almost every organization (Brown and Solomon (1993)). Research has demonstrated that outcome effects are pervasive in performance evaluation processes, and that performance evaluators do not interpret situational information consistently. An experiment is conducted to examine the effects of situational information on managers’ performance and ability attributions under conditions of favorable and unfavorable financial outcomes. The findings indicate that when financial outcomes are unfavorable, outcome effects dominate the performance evaluation process, and situational information has little effect on performance evaluations. The results of cognitive load manipulations indicate that situational information is not ignored, but rather discounted when financial outcomes are favorable.

Collegiality in Business Schools: Development of a Collegiality Measure and Evaluations of its Implications.

Purpose – While collegiality is often discussed and touted as a critical aspect of academia, there is little research that empirically examines collegiality in university business schools. One cause of the paucity of research is the lack of a reliable scale to measure collegiality (Sabharwal, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that measures collegiality at the departmental level for university faculty, and then uses it to understand the implications of collegiality within an academic department within a business school. Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses a scale development process consisting of: defining the domain of the construct; item generation; and psychometric assessment of the scale’s reliability and validity. Items were adapted for a university business school context from Shah (2011) and Seigel and Miner-Rubino (2009). The scale was administrated using a convenience non-random sample design drawn from active marketing and entrepreneurship academics who subsc...

Organizational Trust: Checking, not trusting: trust, distrust and cultural experience in the auditing profession

This chapter explores the interaction of trust and distrust with the associative cultural tiles of organizational and professional values, operating within individual auditors in accounting firms. Building on recent research into trust and culture in healthcare management, the authors consider the way in which this particular professional context (i.e. cultural sphere) affects trust, and at how trust and distrust can exist co-terminously in the same auditor. The chapter shows how an auditors trust and distrust in their clients affects their professional judgments and decisions, and how sound auditing judgments may run counter to the accounting firms needs. Findings include the revelation that less effective, highly trusting auditors tend to stay within the profession but more effective, less trusting auditors leave.

When Should Audit Firms Introduce Analyses of Big Data Into the Audit Process

ABSTRACT This study investigates how the timing of the consideration of Big Data visualizations affects an auditors evaluation of evidence and professional judgments. In addition, we examine whether the use of an intuitive processing mode, as compared to a deliberative processing mode, influences an auditors use and evaluation of Big Data visualizations. We conduct an experiment with 127 senior auditors from two Big 4 firms and find that auditors have difficulty recognizing patterns in Big Data visualizations when viewed before more traditional audit evidence. Our findings also indicate that auditors who view Big Data visualizations containing patterns that are contrary to management assertions after they view traditional audit evidence have greater concerns about potential misstatements and increase budgeted hours more. Overall, our results suggest that Big Data visualizations used as evidential matter have fewer benefits when they are viewed before auditors examine more traditional audit evidence.

Are Engagement Quality Reviews Really Objective

We investigate auditor objectivity as it relates to engagement quality reviews by examining whether engagement quality reviewers (EQRs) exhibit lower levels of objectivity when they have administrative, economic, or social ties with the audit engagement partner. Motivated reasoning theory suggests that EQRs with ties to the engagement partner will reach less conservative conclusions and be more willing to accept an engagement partners decision relative to reviewers who have no connections with the engagement partner. We conduct an experiment where EQRs must review a decision by an engagement partner related to a contingent liability. Results suggest that engagement quality reviews are an effective mechanism for reducing the effects of engagement partner biases to accept client-favored accounting choices. Participants with ties to the engagement partner (i.e., from the same office) and without ties (i.e., from the national office) both challenged the decision of the engagement partner and recommended disclosure of a contingent liability, which client management opposed. We also find an interaction of ties with the engagement partner and the probability of the contingent liability. National office EQRs were less likely to decide that disclosure was necessary than were local office partners when the probability of the contingent liability was low. With regard to the need to recognize a liability, EQRs with and without ties to the engagement partner concurred with the decision of the engagement partner.