Limited Information Capacity Research Articles

Visions of rationality

The classical view that equates rationality with adherence to the laws of probability theory and logic has driven much research on inference. Recently, an increasing number of researchers have begun to espouse a view of rationality that takes account of organisms' adaptive goals, natural environments, and cognitive constraints. We argue that inference is carried out using boundedly rational heuristics, that is, heuristics that allow organisms to reach their goals under conditions of limited time, information, and computational capacity. These heuristics are ecologically rational in that they exploit aspects of both the physical and social environment in order to make adaptive inferences. We review recent work exploring this multifaceted conception of rationality.

Phone-Based Interfaces: Research and Guidelines

The telephone is the most ubiquitous computer input/output device with over 200 million units in the U.S. Thousands of applications – from airline reservations to zoo schedules – employ audio output and touch-tone input to control the flow and content of information. Because of the limited information capacity of the telephone, designing useful and usable phone-based interfaces presents a strong challenge to the designer. This paper will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of phone-based interfaces, present design guidelines, and discuss future directions.

A Behavioural Model of Bargaining

In this paper I shall present a very simple version of a bargaining model based on assumptions of limited information and limited capacity to make rational decisions. The justification for my work lies in the inadequacies both of the formal models in the microeconomic literature and of accounts of bargaining and other conflicts where power or closely related concepts lie at the basis of the discussion.