An Information Processing Perspective on Choice

This chapter discusses that people use a variety of strategies to solve decision problems, and it depends on the properties of the choice task as to which strategies they use. Selecting a particular strategy, or deciding how to decide, results from a trade-off between desires for maximal accuracy and minimal effort. Finally, although the use of simplifying strategies can sometimes lead to errors, people often are adaptive in their use of choice strategies: if not always optimal, they are often intelligent decision makers. Studies also support a theme of much recent decision research that preferences for objects of any complexity are often constructed not merely revealed-in the generation of a response to a judgment or choice task. It suggests that cognitive effort and coping with emotions play a role in understanding how people construct responses to contingent valuation questions, which are increasingly being used to guide public policy decisions. Studies of decision behavior have been enriched by the concepts and methods of cognitive psychology. Ideas about the topics of contingent strategy selection, constructive preferences, and the effects of emotion on information processing during choice can enrich research in other areas of cognition. © 1995, Academic Press Inc.

Duke Scholars

Author John W. Payne Fuqua School of Business

Author James R. Bettman Fuqua School of Business

Author Mary Frances Luce Fuqua School of Business