The previous two decades of APs research have provided a number of important findings regarding the generation and evaluation of hypotheses for significant differences between the auditor’s expectations and the client’s reported results. The authors note that a vast majority of the research focused on performing preliminary and substantive APs. Therefore, this review emphasizes the need for more research on the use of APs during the final stages of the audit. The authors intend for this paper to lead to an increased recognition of the important of performing research on APs with the intent of improving audit practice. 

Messier, W. F., C. A. Simon, and J. L. Smith. 2013. Two Decades of Behavioral Research on Analytical Procedures: What Have We Learned? Auditing 32 (1).