This project will improve the reliability and accuracy of financial reporting by helping auditors, regulators, and corporate management to better assess an organization's control environment (CE). The CE is made up of various abstract, non-financial factors such as management's integrity, attitudes, and practices. Specifically, this project investigates how the experienced auditor represents and processes information about the CE. The project blends theory and practice by incorporating a cognitive science approach into the assessment of an audit judgment task. The project will improve CE evaluations by: (a) accumulating a database of expert knowledge regarding factors critical to CE evaluation; (b) creating structured representations of the auditor's mental model of relations among CE factors and audit risk factors; (c) relating information-gathering techniques to relevant CE factors; (d) elucidating how information framing and the auditor's perspective influence CE evaluation and memory; and (e) developing a CE decision aid for systematic assessment and documentation of the CE. Improving the assessment of the CE will not only increase the reliability of the financial reporting process, but will also improve the validity and accuracy of financial reports. This, in turn, will promote increased confidence in the securities markets, benefiting not only corporations and their investors, but the economy and society as well.
