A decision theoretic analysis of accounting reliability

Accountants use the term traceability of a cost element to describe the extent to which that cost element is related to the specific purpose of the contract. 25 practicing accountants classified a set of cost elements into 2, 3, 4, and 5 categories along this traceability dimension. The purpose was to determine whether limitations in the ability to make absolute judgments described by G. A. Miller and others would be found with the type of stimuli judged by accountants. The Ss' judgments were quite unreliable, despite the fact that they make judgments of this type routinely. Both the amount of information transmitted (systematicity of judgment) and the amount of response equivocation (randomness of judgment) increased with the number of categories available for judgment. In all, results were quite similar to those originally described by Miller. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).