An eye-tracking study on information processing in risky decisions: Evidence for compensatory strategies based on automatic processes

• Published in: Journal of behavioral decision making Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 71 - 98
• Main Authors: Glöckner, Andreas, Herbold, Ann-Katrin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.01.2011; Wiley; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; cumulative prospect theory; decision field theory; Decision making; Decision making models; Decision theory; Entscheidung unter Risiko; eye tracking; Gambling; Heuristic; Heuristics; Heuristik; Information; Intuition; Management science; Operations research; parallel constraint satisfaction; priority heuristic; Probability; Prospect Theory; risky decisions; Satisfaction; Studies; Test; Wahrnehmung
• ISSN: 0894-3257; 1099-0771
• DOI: 10.1002/bdm.684

Many everyday decisions have to be made under risk and can be interpreted as choices between gambles with different outcomes that are realized with specific probabilities. The underlying cognitive processes were investigated by testing six sets of hypotheses concerning choices, decision times, and information search derived from cumulative prospect theory, decision field theory, priority heuristic and parallel constraint satisfaction models. Our participants completed 40 decision tasks of two gambles with two non‐negative outcomes each. Information search was recorded using eye‐tracking technology. Results for choices, decision time, the amount of information searched for, fixation durations, the direction of the information search, and the distribution of fixations conflict with the prediction of the non‐compensatory priority heuristic and indicate that individuals use compensatory strategies. Choice proportions are well in line with the predictions of cumulative prospect theory. Process measures indicate that individuals thereby do not rely on deliberate calculations of weighted sums. Information integration processes seem to be better explained by models that partially rely on automatic processes such as decision field theory or parallel constraint satisfaction models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.