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The Impact of accuracy and effort feedback and goals on adaptive decision behavior
Author(s) -
Creyer Elizabeth H.,
Bettman James R.,
Payne John W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.3960030102
Subject(s) - computer science , normative , information processing , adaptive behavior , selection (genetic algorithm) , machine learning , artificial intelligence , cognitive psychology , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology
This paper examines the impact of accuracy feedback, effort feedback, and emphasis on either a goal of maximizing accuracy relative to effort or minimizing effort relative to accuracy on decision processes. Feedback on the accuracy of decisions leads to more normative‐like processing of information and improved performance only in the most difficult problems, i.e., decisions with low dispersion in attribute weights. Explicit effort feedback has almost no impact on processing or performance. The impact of the goal manipulation on decision processes was found to be consistent with the shift in strategies predicted by an effort/accuracy model of strategy selection. In particular, a goal of emphasizing accuracy led to more normative‐like processing, while emphasis on effort led to less extensive, more selective, and more attribute‐based processing and poorer performance. These results provide perhaps the clearest evidence to date of the effect of goals on processing differences. Complex interactive relationships between types of feedback and goal structures suggest the need for additional study of feedback and goals on adaptive decision behavior.