Strategy selection in decisions from givens: Deciding at a glance?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Decision-making utilizes compensatory and noncompensatory strategies, processing all or some attributes, respectively.
• Noncompensatory strategies are often assumed to be minor in decisions from givens due to apparent ease of processing.
• Existing research on strategy selection in decisions from givens shows inconsistent findings regarding noncompensatory strategy use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of attribute number and coding in strategy selection for decisions from givens.
• To reconcile heterogeneous findings in previous studies on decision-making strategies.
• To explore the cognitive costs associated with different decision strategies under varying information loads.

Main Methods:

• Conducted two experiments manipulating the number of attributes and attribute value coding in decisions from givens.
• Employed a Bayesian multimethod approach analyzing both explicit choices and response times.
• Assessed strategy use, decision accuracy, and response times to infer cognitive processes.

Main Results:

• Noncompensatory strategy selection increased with a higher number of attributes presented per alternative.
• Attribute coding schemes (symbolic representation of values) did not significantly impact strategy choice.
• Compensatory strategy use with more attributes led to longer response times and more errors, indicating cognitive strain.

Conclusions:

• Decisions from givens can impose significant cognitive costs, hindering automatic compensatory processing.
• Noncompensatory strategies are adaptively selected to manage cognitive load in complex decisions from givens.
• The number of attributes is a critical factor influencing strategy selection, favoring simpler noncompensatory approaches when information is abundant.