The Dynamics of Decision Making: Attribute Evaluation and Weighting

The aim of the present research was to investigate the evaluation and weighting mechanisms people employ in multi-attribute decision making. In a Primary and Supplementary Study, I developed a choice task that required subjects to assess the summed value of two attributes and, based on this value, make an accept or reject decision. The Primary Study employed a novel experimental paradigm which allowed us to dynamically track subject attention, with stimulus values that could be dynamically reweighted via the addition of â multipliersâ , which magnified attribute values on a trial-by-trial basis. I found that people were able to accurately re-weight attribute when making decisions. Results also revealed that people tend to fixate longer on stimuli that have been re-weighted. Finally, I developed a computational model of the task using drift diffusion modeling, which provides the basis for future imaging studies to extend this work in a search for neural correlates of attribute evaluation and weighting.M.A