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The Cognitive Underpinnings of Option Generation in Everyday Life Decision‐Making: A Latent Variable Analysis
Author(s) -
Leder Johannes,
Häusser Jan A.,
Krumm Stefan,
Germar Markus,
Schlemmer Alexander,
Kaiser Stefan,
Kalis Annemarie,
Mojzisch Andreas
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/cogs.12678
Subject(s) - everyday life , psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , fluency , construct (python library) , confirmatory factor analysis , verbal fluency test , variance (accounting) , computer science , structural equation modeling , neuropsychology , machine learning , mathematics education , political science , law , programming language , accounting , business , neuroscience
The ability to generate options for action is crucial for everyday life decision‐making. In this article, we propose and test a model of the cognitive underpinnings of option generation in everyday life situations. We carried out a laboratory study using measures of a wide range of cognitive functions and asked participants ( N = 157) to generate options for actions for different everyday life decision‐making scenarios. The results of a latent variable analysis show that the cognitive underpinnings of option generation are consistent across different everyday life situations and, hence, option generation can be conceptualized as a general construct. Moreover, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis reveal that, when controlling for the shared variance among the cognitive processes assessed, verbal fluency, working memory capacity, ideation fluency, and processing speed predicted option generation. These findings suggest that option generation in everyday life situations can be distinguished from other cognitive constructs, such as divergent thinking (in terms of ideas’ originality) and long‐term memory.