This study is subject to the typical limitations of experimental research. Participants may not
attend as attentively to tasks in an experimental setting as they do in practice, and the experimental
tasks may not capture all relevant characteristics of the rich environment in which professionals
operate. Also, because the experiment was not carried out in a controlled environment, we cannot
be certain that all of the instructions were followed. However, this limitation would likely bias
against our obtaining significant results. As with prior studies examining the role of formalization of
audit methodology measured at the firm level, the primary limitation in interpreting this study’s
results is that differences may exist between participating firms other than the level of formalization
built into their audit methodology. To the extent that these differences are not controlled through the
inclusion of individual-difference measures in our statistical analyses, this possibility represents a
limitation in drawing conclusions regarding the effects of formalization on auditors’ experiential development and subsequent task performance. However, it should be noted that our results are
consistent with, and add credence to, the findings of prior work examining the impact of
formalization on knowledge acquisition and task performance at the task level. This study adds
novel evidence by examining whether the effects of formalization can be found in the performance
of auditors whose prior experience is in firms that differ in terms of formalization