The effects of experience and task difficulty on accuracy and confidence assessments of auditors

This study extends prior research in psychology and auditing by examining the effects of audit experience and task difficulty on control risk evaluation. It also examines whether the effect of framing is mitigated by the simultaneous presentation of information. Ninety‐eight auditors performed a control risk evaluation task and recorded their judgement and their confidence. We find that judgement confidence increases with audit experience and that judgement confidence decreases as perceived task difficulty increases. However, we find no relation between audit experience and judgement accuracy or between perceived task difficulty and judgement accuracy. In addition, we find a significant negative relation between judgement confidence and judgement accuracy, which indicates that the participants' confidence is not appropriate. As expected, there is no framing effect when information is presented simultaneously.