Theory Of Choice Behavior Research Articles

The role of justice in interdependent decision making

A motivational analysis of decision making in which payoffs are interdependent suggests that choices can be regarded as means of allocating rewards in accordance with certain ethical principles, which may not correspond to “rational” decision criteria of the sort proposed by statistical decision and game theorists—e.g., mazimizing expected utility. Specifically, individuals a and b appear to make maximizing choices with the frequency that is required to maintain or achieve justice in the distribution of rewards—a condition quantitatively defined as equality of the ratios of their perceived relative merit ( X) to the amount of reward ( R) felt to be deserved. Thus, X a R a = X b R b . Experiments designed to test hypotheses derived from this “exchange” theory of choice behavior yielded entirely affirmative results.

Substitutability and similarity in binary choices

The assumption that a binary choice probability is expressible as a monotone function of the scale values of the two alternatives is investigated. Four different conditions are shown to be equivalent forms of the same substitutability, or independence, principle which underlies most probabilistic theories of choice behavior. In a study of judgments of relative size, the independence principle is contrasted with the hypothesis that interstimulus similarity facilitates discrimination. The data reject the independence principle while supporting the similarity hypothesis.

Motivational bases of choice in experimental games

The present study presents a motivational theory of choice behavior in game situations, and develops a method that provides a flexible means for comparing the relative dominance of the various social motives postulated to underlie choice behavior in such situations. An experiment is conducted to test a set of hypothesized relationships between two conditions of interpersonal set, “partner” and “opponent”; three conditions of cumulative display of scores, “own,” “joint,” and “difference”; six classes of decomposed games; and the subjects' actual choice behavior. It was observed that whereas set did not affect the subject's choice behavior, there was a highly significant interaction between the display conditions and the classes of games. Finally, the relative utility of an algebraic and a stochastic choice model were evaluated in terms of the data obtained in the study.

RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS AND THE SPEED OF RELATIVE JUDGEMENTS

It is hypothesized that the speed with which a relative judgement is made between two stimuli on any given dimension depends upon the relation between the general position of the stimuli on the dimension and the direction of the required judgement along this. Experiments involving the discrimination of light patches of different luminance are reported which support this hypothesis. They show that subjects are quicker at choosing the brighter than the darker of two relatively intense stimuli but quicker at choosing the darker of two relatively dark stimuli. A provisional explanation of the phenomenon in terms of a response competition theory of choice behaviour is offered. Some alternative hypotheses are considered and analogies are made with other psychological phenomena. It is concluded that this is a judgemental phenomenon of some considerable generality.