Order Effects And The Audit Materiality Revision Choice

Prior literature has examined order effects in a variety of auditor decision-making judgments.  This study expands the order effect literature by examining the impact of qualitative information on auditors’ willingness to revise materiality thresholds subsequent to the completion of audit fieldwork.  If financial reporting risk (the risk of failing to report misstatements appropriately) is present in an audit engagement, auditors may choose to revise their materiality thresholds upward, causing seemingly material misstatements to become quantitatively immaterial.  Consequently, financial reporting risk is assumed away and auditors do not appear negligent in their professional responsibilities.  The results show that auditors are in fact willing to revise their materiality judgments given qualitative information and that different levels of inherent risk present in the audit environment also affects these revisions.  In addition, the order in which the qualitative information is presented to auditors has a significant effect on the materiality judgment revisions.  More specifically, significant recency order-effects are identified in the least-experienced (newly hired staff) and most-experienced (managers and partners) auditor groups, given high and low levels of inherent risk.  Finally, the most-experienced auditor group shows the most pronounced order-effect biases

Heritable Choice of Colony Size in Cliff Swallows: Does Experience Trump Genetics in Older Birds?

The variation in breeding colony size seen in populations of most colonial birds may reflect heritable choices made by individuals that are phenotypically specialized for particular social environments. Although a few studies have reported evidence for genetically based choice of group sizes in birds, we know relatively little about the extent to which animals potentially rely on experience versus innate preferences in deciding how many conspecifics to settle with at different times of their lives. We conducted a cross-fostering experiment in 1997–1998 on cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, in southwestern Nebraska, USA, in which some individuals were reared in colonies that differed in size from those in which they were born. Breeding colony sizes chosen by this cohort of birds were monitored by mark-recapture throughout their lives. A multistate mark-recapture analysis revealed that birds in their first breeding year chose colony sizes similar to those of their birth, regardless of their rearing environment, confirming a previous analysis. Beyond the first breeding year, however, cliff swallows’ choice of colony size was less dependent on the size of the colony in which they were born. Birds born in small colonies and reared in large colonies showed evidence of a delayed rearing effect, with these birds overwhelmingly choosing large colonies in later years. Heritabilities suggested strong genetic effects on colony choice in the first year but not in later years. Cliff swallows’ genetically based colony size preferences their first year could be a way to ensure matching of their phenotype to an appropriate social environment as yearlings. In later years, familiarity with particular colony sites and available information on site quality may override innate group size preferences when birds choose colonies

The Effect of Weather during Rearing on Morphometric Traits of Juvenile Cliff Swallows

Episodes of food deprivation may change how nestling birds allocate energy to the growth of skeletal and feather morphological traits during development. Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) are colonial, insectivorous birds that regu­larly experience brief periods of severe weather–induced food deprivation during the nesting season which may affect offspring development. We investigated how annual variation in timing of rearing and weather were associated with length of wing and tail, skeletal traits, and body mass in juvenile cliff swallows reared in southwestern Nebraska during 2001–2006. As predicted under conditions of food deprivation, nestling skeletal and feather measurements were generally smaller in cooler years. However, variability explained by weather was small, suggesting that morphometric traits of juvenile cliff swallows were not highly sensitive to weather conditions experienced during this study. Measurements of juvenile morphological traits were positively correlated with measurements taken as adults, meaning that any variation among juveniles in response to rearing conditions showed evidence of persisting into a bird’s first breeding season. Our results show that body size in this species is phenotypically plastic and influ­enced, in part, by weather variables

Fluctuating Viability Selection on Morphology of Cliff Swallows Is Driven by Climate

The extent to which fluctuating selection can maintain evolutionary stasis in most populations remains an unresolved question in evolutionary biology. Climate has been hypothesized to drive reversals in the direction of selection among different time periods and may also be responsible for intense episodic selection caused by rare weather events. We measured viability selection associated with morphological traits in cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in western Nebraska, USA, over a 14-year period following a rare climatic event. We used mark-recapture to estimate the annual apparent survival of over 26 000 individuals whose wing, tail, tarsus, and bill had been measured. The fitness functions associated with tarsus length and bill dimensions fluctuated depending on annual climate conditions on the birds’ breeding grounds. The oscillating yearly patterns may have slowed and occasionally reversed directional change in trait trajectories, although there was a trend over time for all traits except tarsus to increase in size. The net positive directional selection on some traits, despite periodic climate-associated fluctuations, suggests that cliff swallow morphology in the population is likely to keep changing and supports recent work contending that selection in general does not fluctuate enough to be an effective driver of stasis

Heritable Choice of Colony Size in Cliff Swallows: Does Experience Trump Genetics in Older Birds?

The variation in breeding colony size seen in populations of most colonial birds may reflect heritable choices made by individuals that are phenotypically specialized for particular social environments. Although a few studies have reported evidence for genetically based choice of group sizes in birds, we know relatively little about the extent to which animals potentially rely on experience versus innate preferences in deciding how many conspecifics to settle with at different times of their lives. We conducted a cross-fostering experiment in 1997–1998 on cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, in southwestern Nebraska, USA, in which some individuals were reared in colonies that differed in size from those in which they were born. Breeding colony sizes chosen by this cohort of birds were monitored by mark-recapture throughout their lives. A multistate mark-recapture analysis revealed that birds in their first breeding year chose colony sizes similar to those of their birth, regardless of their rearing environment, confirming a previous analysis. Beyond the first breeding year, however, cliff swallows’ choice of colony size was less dependent on the size of the colony in which they were born. Birds born in small colonies and reared in large colonies showed evidence of a delayed rearing effect, with these birds overwhelmingly choosing large colonies in later years. Heritabilities suggested strong genetic effects on colony choice in the first year but not in later years. Cliff swallows’ genetically based colony size preferences their first year could be a way to ensure matching of their phenotype to an appropriate social environment as yearlings. In later years, familiarity with particular colony sites and available information on site quality may override innate group size preferences when birds choose colonies

The Effect of Weather during Rearing on Morphometric Traits of Juvenile Cliff Swallows

Episodes of food deprivation may change how nestling birds allocate energy to the growth of skeletal and feather morphological traits during development. Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) are colonial, insectivorous birds that regu­larly experience brief periods of severe weather–induced food deprivation during the nesting season which may affect offspring development. We investigated how annual variation in timing of rearing and weather were associated with length of wing and tail, skeletal traits, and body mass in juvenile cliff swallows reared in southwestern Nebraska during 2001–2006. As predicted under conditions of food deprivation, nestling skeletal and feather measurements were generally smaller in cooler years. However, variability explained by weather was small, suggesting that morphometric traits of juvenile cliff swallows were not highly sensitive to weather conditions experienced during this study. Measurements of juvenile morphological traits were positively correlated with measurements taken as adults, meaning that any variation among juveniles in response to rearing conditions showed evidence of persisting into a bird’s first breeding season. Our results show that body size in this species is phenotypically plastic and influ­enced, in part, by weather variables