The influence of some task variables on cognitive operations in an information-processing decision model

Abstract One component of the multidimensional decision process is strategies for amalgamating dimensionwise preferences. This paper describes an information processing model that makes the formulation possible of a great variety of such strategies on the basis of relatively few elementary information processes. Cognitive processes assumed to be specific for decision making are discussed and formulation of strategies and sequences of strategies based on these processes are outlined. Finally an experiment is described in which three task variables were varied: type of information (verbal or numerical), number of alternatives (two or five), and number of dimensions (three or six). Results demonstrated that in the numerical condition and in the 2-alternative condition those cognitive operations directly comparing aspects, computing the differences between aspects, and concatenating aspects were employed more often than were those operations evaluating aspects against an internal or external standard and defining levels of acceptance. It was also found that cognitive processes weighting the dimensions were used more often in the 5-alternative condition than in the 2-alternative condition.