Abstract
In a sense, papers like Gordon Pitz’ bring decision theory back to psychology. Decision theory did not emerge from psychology directly. Instead, psychology came onto the scene in a way which is rather typical for psychology. You do not need psychology as long as everything runs all right. Thus, individual differences in reaction times were not discovered until an astronomer fired his assistant because he reported different times for the passing of a star in the telescope. Similarly, research on visual perception received an important thrust from the discovery of optical illusions; and large parts of developmental psychology were stimulated by the failure of educational programs. Additionally the psychology of thought was partly based on the discovery that human thinking does not always follow the rules of formal logic. Psychology is not the science of pathologic behavior; but somehow we seem to need a science of behavior mainly when we feel that some behavior does not occur as expected. Decision making originally emerged from normative economics. Here too, psychologists became interested in decision making when people did not behave as expected, i. e. as prescribed by the normative laws. As a special field of the psychology of cognition, decision making can be viewed as a kind of problem solving process. When choosing among several alternatives or options available, the decision maker tries to find a correct solution to a problem. Problem solving situations may typically be characterized as having three states.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bernbach, H.A. Decision processes in memory. Psychological Review, 1967, 74, 462–480.
Bernoulli, D. Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis. Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperiales Petropolitanae, 1738, 5, 175–192. English translation in Econometrica, 1954, 22, 23–36.
Hogarth, R.M. Decision time as function of task complexity. In D. Wendt & C. Vlek (Eds.), Utility, probability, and human decision making. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel, 1975.
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 1973, 80, 237–251.
Kuhn, T. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Miller, G.A. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 1956, 63, 81–97.
Neumann, J. von & Morgenstern, O. Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton: University Press, 1944.
Slovic, P. & Lichtenstein, S. The relative importance of probabilities and payoffs in risk taking, Journal of Experimental Psychology Monograph, 1968, 78, (3, Pt. 2). (a)
Slovic, P. & Lichtenstein, S. The importance of variance preferences in gambling decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1968, 78, 646–654. (b)
Tversky, A. Elimination by aspects: A theory of choice. Psychological Review, 1972, 79, 281–299.
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 1974, 185, 1124–1131.
Wendt, D. & Vlek, C. (Eds.), Utility, probability, and human decision making. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel, 1975.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1977 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wendt, D. (1977). Decision Making and Cognition: Comments. In: Jungermann, H., De Zeeuw, G. (eds) Decision Making and Change in Human Affairs. Theory and Decision Library, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1276-8_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1276-8_27
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-1278-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1276-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive