Text-Based Decisions: Changes in the Availability of Facts Due to Instructions and the Passage of Time.
Abstract
A study was conducted to examine the relationship between availability of information in memory and decisional accuracy. Subjects were required to read three texts while engaging in a pre-determined schema building task, and to make decisions about them. Relative availability of information was manipulated by repeating certain information within the texts, by requiring decisions to be made either immediately after reading the texts or 24 hours later, and by giving subjects either incidental or intentional learning instructions. The results were threefold. First, one decisional processing was equated through the use of a schema-building task, instructions were found to have little effect on decision accuracy. Second, subjects' decisional performance was found to be a reflection of memory biases. Finally, subjects tended to better remember statements they believed to be important and to make decisions consistent with those statements. This effect was substantially magnified if subjectively important statements were repeated, thereby further enhancing their availability in memory. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA121022
Entities
People
- Denise Dellarosa
- Lyle E. Bourne Jr.
Organizations
- University of Colorado Boulder