The effect of task experience on assessments of auditor expert potential

This paper proposes a model and methodology for studying the effect of experience on an auditor's expert potential. Expert potential is defined as an increase in the expected level of expertise at which an auditor will perform in an arbitrary future task. An auditor's behaviors during performance of a current task are treated as probes of that auditor's knowledge base. From an analysis of the responses thus obtained, inferences are made concerning the effects of task experience on the underlying properties of the knowledge driving task behaviors and on the probability of greater expert-like task behavior in the future. Application of the model is illustrated by evaluating the effects of experience on the expert potential of four first-year auditors who performed audit-related tasks in simulated auditing environments.