Quality and quantity goals in a complex decision task: Strategies and outcomes.

Issues related to quality goals, quantity goals, and strategy development were examined in a complex decision task. 160 undergraduates used a computer program to select stocks for investments. Manipulated variables included task difficulty, quantity-goal difficulty, and quality-goal difficulty. Differences among participants'information-search strategies were identified and analyzed. A quantity-goal effect on performance quantity, a 3-way interaction on performance quality, and a number of effects for search-strategy variables were found. Implications and future research directions are presented and discussed

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