Decision speed induces context effects in choice

The context in which a decision occurs can influence the decision-making process in many ways. In the laboratory, this is often evident in the effects of recent decisions. For instance, many experiments combine easy and difficult decisions, such as when word frequency is manipulated in lexical decision. The "blocking effect" describes how such decisions differ depending on whether the conditions are presented in pure blocks (comprised purely of easy or hard stimuli) or mixed blocks (also known as a "mixing cost"). We present a novel extension to these context effects, demonstrating in two experiments that they can be induced using conditions with identical difficulty, but different timing properties. This suggests that explanations of context effects based on task difficulty or error monitoring alone might be insufficient, and suggest a role for decision time. In prior work, we suggested such a hypothesis under the assumption that observers minimize their decision time, subject to an accuracy constraint. Consistent with this explanation, we find that decisions in slower conditions were based on less evidence when they were experienced in mixed compared to pure blocks.     

Consumer Trust and Advice Acceptance: The Moderating Roles of Benevolence,Expertise, and Negative Emotions

I explored advice acceptance for high‐stakes decisions (i.e., those with subjectively important and risky outcomes), focusing on the relative influence of two components of consumer trust—benevolence and expertise—as well as perceived emotional decision difficulty. Participants solicited advice from experts when their decisions were low in perceived emotional difficulty but favored the advice of predominantly benevolent providers when making highly emotionally difficult decisions. Although consumers who faced emotionally difficult decisions were willing to trade off expertise for benevolence, they did not perceive this non‐normative trade‐off to influence decision quality. Instead, the results support a “stress buffering” effect whereby consumers were more confident in the accuracy of predominantly benevolent providers’ advice.     

Inferences from decision difficulty

We propose that people infer the relative attractiveness of the choice alternatives from decision difficulty. A difficult decision signifies that the alternatives are close to each other in attractiveness, and an easy decision signifies that the alternatives are remote from each other in attractiveness. In Study 1, observers used reported decision difficulty to infer preferences of the decision maker. Studies 2-4 showed that inferences about the source of one’s own decision difficulty may affect a decision maker’s preferences. Study 4 integrates the notion of inferences from decision difficulty with dissonance theory, showing that in repeatable decisions difficulty reduces post-decisional spreading of alternatives, as predicted by our model, whereas with one-time decisions, difficulty enhances post-decisional spreading of alternatives, as predicted by dissonance theory.     

Unsupervised categorization with a child sample: category cohesion development

Studies into categorization have demonstrated that the ability to form concepts is an essential ability in cognitive development. For example, before a decision about anything can be made, firstly category concepts need to be acquired in order to make efficient decisions about that situation. The present study explored a particular type of category learning, not previously explored in this particular context – unsupervised categorization with 16 items and two dimensions, and comparing specifically children vs. adults. Previous studies have typically focused on simpler designs such as three items of two dimensions in the triad tasks, or a greater number of dimensions but with much fewer items per category in other unsupervised settings. This study investigated unsupervised categorization with two levels of task difficulty, and compared two different populations, children and adults. The findings revealed that adults performed better for the easy condition but there was no difference between these groups for the more difficult category task. The findings also revealed that unsupervised categorization in more complex settings result in more one dimensional sorting, for both children and adults. The results are discussed in the context of unsupervised categorization development abilities in children.     

Time-varying decision boundaries: insights from optimality analysis

The most widely used account of decision-making proposes that people choose between alternatives by accumulating evidence in favor of each alternative until this evidence reaches a decision boundary. It is frequently assumed that this decision boundary stays constant during a decision, depending on the evidence collected but not on time. Recent experimental and theoretical work has challenged this assumption, showing that constant decision boundaries are, in some circumstances, sub-optimal. We introduce a theoretical model that facilitates identification of the optimal decision boundaries under a wide range of conditions. Time-varying optimal decision boundaries for our model are a result only of uncertainty over the difficulty of each trial and do not require decision deadlines or costs associated with collecting evidence, as assumed by previous authors. Furthermore, the shape of optimal decision boundaries depends on the difficulties of different decisions. When some trials are very difficult, optimal boundaries decrease with time, but for tasks that only include a mixture of easy and medium difficulty trials, the optimal boundaries increase or stay constant. We also show how this simple model can be extended to more complex decision-making tasks such as when people have unequal priors or when they can choose to opt out of decisions. The theoretical model presented here provides an important framework to understand how, why, and whether decision boundaries should change over time in experiments on decision-making.     

Underconfidence in sensory discrimination: The interaction between experimental setting and response strategies

In a recent issue of this journal, Baranski and Petrusic (1994) presented empirical data revealing overconfidence in sensory discrimination. In this paper, we propose an explanation of Baranski and Petrusic’s results, based on an idiosyncrasy in the experimental setting that misleads subjects who are using an unwarranted symmetry assumption. Experiment 1 showed that when this hypothesis is controlled for, a large underconfidence bias is obtained with Baranski and Petrusic’s procedure. The results of Experiment 2 confirmed that overconfidence is difficult to obtain in subject-controlled sensory discrimination tasks, even for a very low proportion of correct responses. The different results obtained in sensory and cognitive tasks suggest that one should not uncritically draw parallels between confidence in sensory and cognitive judgments.     

Modeling experimentally induced strategy shifts

In dynamic decision-making environments, observers must continuously adjust their decision-making strategies. Previous research has focused on internal fluctuations in decision mechanisms, without regard to how these changes are induced by environmental changes. We developed a simple paradigm in which we manipulated task difficulty, thereby inducing changes in decision processes. We applied this paradigm to recognition memory, manipulating task difficulty by changing the similarity of lures to targets. More difficult decision environments caused participants to make more careful decisions, but these changes did not appear immediately. We propose a simple theoretical account for these data, using a dynamic version of signal detection theory fitted to individual subjects. Our model represents a significant departure from existing models because it incorporates subject-controlled parameters that may adjust over time in response to environmental changes.     

The learning ability paradox in adult metamemory research: Where are the metamemory differences between good and poor learners?

College students’ ability to judge whether a studied item had been learned well enough to be recalled on a later test was examined in three experiments with self-paced learning procedures. Generally, these learners compensated for item difficulty when allocating study time, studying hard items longer than easy items, but they still recalled more easy items than hard items and tended to drop items out too soon. When provided with test opportunities during study or a delay between study and judgment, learners compensated significantly more for item difficulty and recalled substantially more. Paradoxically, good and poor learners compensated similarly for item difficulty and benefited similarly from testing during study and from delayed decision making. Thus, although the ability to make metamemory decisions was shown to be important for effective learning, these decisions were made equally well by good and poor associative learners. An analysis of tasks used to investigate metamemory-memory relationships in adult learning may provide an account for this apparent learning ability paradox.     

Individual Versus Group Decision Making: Social Comparison in Goals for Individual Task Performance

This experiment compares the decisions of individuals and groups on goals for the performance expected from individuals on a problem-solving or an error-checking task. For both tasks, two versions were constructed to reflect low and high levels of task difficulty. Predictions from two different social comparison of abilities approaches were formulated, with the social comparison based on success approach predicting that group goals would be easier than individual goals, while social comparison based on performance predicted the opposite pattern. Consistent with the social comparison based on success predictions, group goals were observed to be significantly less difficult than individual goals for both tasks, both levels of task difficulty, and for both an initial and a second goal-setting occasion. Of particular interest was a finding that the easier group goals reflected group member preferences for easy goals in anticipation of group decision making. It is proposed that social factors such as evaluation apprehension and social comparison may be responsible for the differences observed in group and individual goal decisions, and that social factors may have an important role in a variety of goal-setting situations.     

Conflict and Loss Aversion in Multiattribute Choice: The Effects of Trade-Off Size and Reference Dependence on Decision Difficulty

Two experiments assess the type and amount of conflict influencing decision difficulty in hypothetical scenarios where subjects chose between two alternatives made to appear relatively attractive (approach–approach conflicts) or relatively unattractive (avoidance-avoidance conflicts), each involving attribute trade-offs across alternatives (embedded approach–avoidance conflicts). In Experiment 1, independent of information processing demands, decisions are more difficult when alternatives are unattractive and/or attribute trade-offs are large. Reference states that change the relative attractiveness of the alternatives increase or decrease decision difficulty in a manner consistent with loss aversion: Superior reference states increase decision difficulty more than inferior reference states reduce it. Experiment 2 further tests the reference dependence of decision difficulty by varying the nature of the reference state (stated comparators, as in Experiment 1, or endowments) as well as its extremity. Endowed reference states affect decision difficulty more than reference states that are stated comparators. Moreover, consistent with loss aversion, inferior reference states that are twice as extreme as superior reference states reduce decision difficulty about as much as the superior reference states increase it. The results demonstrate that decisions can be made easier or harder by way of reference dependence, and that the loss aversion so prevalent in preference formation generalizes to perceptions of decision difficulty in multiattribute settings.     

The calibration and resolution of confidence in perceptual judgments

Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontariot Canada Confidence rating based calibration and resolution indices were obtained in two experiments requiring perceptual comparisons and in a third with visual gap detection. Four important results were obtained. First, as in the general knowledge domain, subjects were underconfident when judgments were easy and overconfident when they were difficult. Second, paralleling the clear dependence of calibration on decisional difficulty, resolution decreased with increases in decision difficulty arising either from decreases in discriminability or from increasing demands for speed at the expense of accuracy. Third, providing trial-by-trial response feedback on difficult tasks improved resolution but had no effect on calibration. Fourth, subjects can accurately reportsubjective errors (i.e., trials in which they have indicated that they made an error) with their confidence ratings. It is also shown that the properties of decision time, conditionalized on confidence category, impose a rigorous set of constraints on theories of confidence calibration.     

Discrepancy-plus-search processes in prospective memory retrieval

In the present study, we investigated the processes underlying prospective memory (PM) retrieval, focusing specifically on two possible spontaneous processes: discrepancy-plus-search and familiarity. Discrepancy was elicited by orthogonally manipulating the processing difficulties of the PM targets and the nontargets. Participants performed a PM task while solving anagrams with two levels of difficulty (easy or difficult). Assuming that the ease of processing easy anagrams would heighten a sense of familiarity, the familiarity view predicted better PM performance with easy anagrams as the PM targets. In contrast, the discrepancy-plus-search view predicted higher PM performance for the PM targets that were anagrams whose difficulty level mismatched that of the surrounding nontargets, as compared to PM targets whose difficulty matched that of the surrounding nontargets. This prediction was based on the idea that mismatching rather than matching difficulty levels would create discrepancy, thereby signaling significance for the target. Participants were more likely to perform the PM task for PM targets that were discrepant, supporting the discrepancy-plus-search view.     

A context-based theory of recency and contiguity in free recall

The authors present a new model of free recall on the basis of M. W. Howard and M. J. Kahana's temporal context model and M. Usher and J. L. McClelland's leaky-accumulator decision model. In this model, contextual drift gives rise to both short-term and long-term recency effects, and contextual retrieval gives rise to short-term and long-term contiguity effects. Recall decisions are controlled by a race between competitive leaky accumulators. The model captures the dynamics of immediate, delayed, and continual distractor free recall, demonstrating that dissociations between short- and long-term recency can naturally arise from a model in which an internal contextual state is used as the sole cue for retrieval across time scales.     

权力对延迟选择的影响

本研究旨在考察权力对延迟选择的影响, 并探讨决策难度在其中的调节作用以及决策过程的中介作用。两个实验均先操纵个体的权力状态, 然后再请被试完成随后的延迟选择任务。结果发现, 决策难度可调节权力对延迟选择的影响, 当决策困难时, 高权力者具有更低的延迟倾向, 当决策容易时, 权力的影响消失。决策过程的加工变异性可中介权力对延迟选择的影响。结果表明, 低权力者比高权力者具有更高的延迟倾向(尤其当决策困难时), 不同权力水平者在决策过程上的差异或可部分解释此种现象。     

Risk taking in achievement-oriented situations: Do people really maximize affect or competence information?

Several studies of choice behavior (risk taking) in achievement-oriented situations are reanalyzed. The usual ways of pooling all choices over trials and subjects conceal the series of subjects' decisions and the dynamics inherent in these decisions. A basic strategy of subjects in an achievement-oriented choice situation seems to be to start with an easy task, choose a more difficult one whenever you succeed, and stay mostly at the same difficulty level whenever you fail. A computer model, in which such simple assumptions are made, generates preference functions over the order of difficulty levels that are indistinguishable from those found in empirical studies. It is concluded that the study of choice behavior in achievement-oriented situations should be based on the analysis of the series of single decisions by one subject. For this we need models that allow the predictions of such decisions and the prediction of action-controlling cognitions and emotions.     

The dynamics of experimentally induced criterion shifts

Investigations of decision making have typically assumed stationarity, even though commonly observed "context effects" are dynamic by definition. Mirror effects are an important class of context effects that can be explained by changes in participants' decision criteria. When easy and difficult conditions are blocked alternately and a mirror effect is observed, participants must repeatedly change their decision criteria. The authors investigated the time course of these criterion changes and observed the buildup of mirror effects on a trial-by-trial basis. The data are consistent with slow, systematic changes in decision criteria that lag behind stimulus changes. The length of this lag is considerable: analysis of a simple dynamic signal-detection model suggests participants take an average of around 14 trials to adjust to new decision environments. This trial-level measurement of experimentally induced changes has implications for traditional blockwise analyses of data and for models of decision making.     

Emotional sequelae of abortion: implications for clinical practice

For women in therapy who have had abortions, an exploration of the context and aftermath of each abortion has been suggested. This inquiry should include: characteristics of the woman herself before and at the time of the abortion, the nature of the interpersonal and cultural milieu at the time, characteristics of the medical environment and procedure, and any events subsequent to the abortion that may evoke regrets about the earlier decision.
Whether or not such an inquiry results in the identification of unresolved issues surrounding the abortion, it is likely to enhance one's general understanding of the client. Exploring a woman's decision to have an abortion can bring into relief developmental and family issues, relationship conflicts, and her aspirations for education, work, and family. A woman's approach to establishing and asserting her priorities and values in making difficult personal decisions becomes clear as does her ability to tolerate and resolve the ambivalence inherent in making difficult decisions.
In psychotherapy, it is important to understand and address those aspects of experience that women have difficulty resolving. Hence, the emphasis on categories of experience that may have a negative impact on a woman's emotional well-being after abortion. Nevertheless, the clinician should remember that even women who report negative post-abortion sequelae overwhelmingly report that they feel that the decision was the right one for them. Having ambivalent feelings to resolve does not necessarily mean that one has made a wrong choice, only that one has made an emotionally significant choice with far-reaching personal implications, in a sociocultural environment that reinforces the ambivalence inherent in such decisions.     

The Political Manipulation of Group Composition: Engineering the Decision Context

Group decisions are not made solely by evaluating the merits of the contending positions. Instead, actors may engage in manipulation to increase the fortunes of their policy preference. Actors may manipulate information, group procedures, or group composition. Using a model of group socialization, this paper argues that a manipulator may seek to alter the group composition as to access and/or status. In doing so, the manipulator seeks to create a more favorable decision environment. This political perspective maintains that the dynamic nature of group composition provides an opportunity for a manipulator to engineer the decision context, potentially affecting the group's decisional output. Strategies and tactics of composition manipulation are presented and then utilized to analyze the American decision process during the Iranian revolution.     

Framing effects in group investment decision making: role of group polarization

Prospect theory proposes that framing effects result in a preference for risk-averse choices in gain situations and risk-seeking choices in loss situations. However, in group polarization situations, groups show a pronounced tendency to shift toward more extreme positions than those they initially held. Whether framing effects in group decision making are more prominent as a result of the group-polarization effect was examined. Purposive sampling of 120 college students (57 men, 63 women; M age = 20.1 yr., SD = 0.9) allowed assessment of relative preference between cautious and risky choices in individual and group decisions. Findings indicated that both group polarization and framing effects occur in investment decisions. More importantly, group decisions in a gain situation appear to be more cautious, i.e., risk averse, than individual decisions, whereas group decisions in the loss situation appear to be more risky than individual decisions. Thus, group decision making may expand framing effects when it comes to investment choices through group polarization.