Do People Order Cues by Retrieval Fluency when Making Probabilistic Inferences?

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_5C6B178D1E67
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Do People Order Cues by Retrieval Fluency when Making Probabilistic Inferences?
Journal
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
Author(s)
Dimov C.M., Link D.
ISSN
0894-3257
Publication state
Published
Issued date
10/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
30
Number
4
Pages
843-854
Language
english
Notes
HEC Lausanne PhD Grant
SNSF grant 144413 "Strategy Selection"
SNSF grant 146702 "Architectural Process Models of Decision Making"
Abstract
In multiple-cue probabilistic inferences, people infer alternatives' unknown values on decision criteria, using alternatives' attributes as cues. Some inferential strategies, like take-the-best, assume that people consider relevant cues sequentially in order of decreasing validity. This assumption has been deemed cognitively implausible by some, who suggest memory retrieval principles to guide cue order. We test whether memory-based inferences are better described by a model considering cues in order of validity or in order of memory retrieval. In an experiment, we manipulated the frequency with which cues appeared in a learning phase, increasing retrieval fluency of cue values related to the more frequently appearing cue. In a subsequent decision phase, participants made a series of two-alternative decisions based on the learned cue values. We compared two sequential sampling models, which differed in whether cues are sampled in order of subjective cue validity or in order of retrieval fluency. To model retrieval order of cues in the fluency sampling model, we used the declarative memory theory embedded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture. Most participants' decisions were best described by the model sampling cues in order of memory retrieval. Only a minority of participants were classified as sampling cues by validity. Our result suggests that retrieval fluency is the primary driver of cue order in inferences from memory, irrespective of the cues' validities.
Keywords
inference from memory, retrieval fluency, sequential sampling models, ACT-R, simple heuristics, take-the-best heuristic
Web of science
Create date
08/05/2017 13:16
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:14
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