Reversing the similarity effect: The effect of presentation format

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Context effects alter preferences when new options are introduced.
• Existing models often assume within-dimension comparisons.
• Choice set presentation format influences comparison strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how presentation format (by-alternative vs. by-dimension) affects the similarity effect.
• To test if a by-dimension format reverses the similarity effect.
• To evaluate the ability of decision field theories to explain observed effects.

Main Methods:

• Participants evaluated apartment choice sets under two presentation formats: by-alternative and by-dimension.
• The similarity effect was measured in both conditions.
• Computational models (MDFT, MLBA, EBA) were used to account for the data.

Main Results:

• The by-alternative format produced a standard similarity effect.
• The by-dimension format resulted in a significant reverse similarity effect.
• Multialternative Decision Field Theory (MDFT) and Multiattribute Linear Ballistic Accumulator (MLBA) successfully predicted these findings.

Conclusions:

• The presentation format critically influences preferential choice, specifically the similarity effect.
• Decision field theories incorporating forgetting, inhibition, or attention to differences explain these context effects.
• Models of preferential choice must accommodate flexible comparison processes.