Abstract:
Recent experimental evidence is marshalled in support of the position that man's limited memory, attention, and reasoning capabilities lead him to apply simple strain-reducing cognitive strategies for processing information when making judgments and decisions. These strategies portray decision processes in a manner quite different from traditional normative and descriptive models. In some situations, these strategies may produce good decisions; in others, they may lead to serious mistakes. Relevance of these findings for important "real-world" (i.e., non-laboratory) decisions is discussed.