Inducing Thought Processes: Bringing Process Measures and Cognitive Processes Closer Together

Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck*, Anton Kühberger, Benjamin Gagl, Florian Hutzler

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The challenge in inferring cognitive processes from observational data is to correctly align overt behavior with its covert cognitive process. To improve our understanding of this overt–covert mapping in the domain of decision making, we collected eye-movement data during decisions between gamble-problems. Participants were either free to choose or instructed to use a specific choice strategy (maximizing expected value or a choice heuristic). We found large differences in looking patterns between free and instructed choices. Looking patterns provided no support for the common assumption that attention is equally distributed between outcomes and probabilities, even when participants were instructed to maximize expected value. Eye-movement data are to some extent ambiguous with respect to underlying cognitive processes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1001-1013
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Behavioral Decision Making
Volume30
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2017

Keywords

  • expected value
  • eye-tracking
  • priority heuristic
  • process tracing
  • reverse inference

Fields of Science and Technology Classification 2012

  • 501 Psychology

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