Team reflexivity, development of shared task representations, and the use of distributed information in group decision making.

Decision-making groups often exchange and integrate distributed information to a lesser extent than is desirable for high-quality decisions. One important reason for this lies in group members’ understanding of the decision task—their task representations—specifically the extent to which they understand the importance of exchange and integration of information. The authors hypothesized that a group’s development of a (shared) understanding of the information elaboration requirements of their task is influenced by collective reflection on the task. When not all group members initially realize the importance of information elaboration, team reflexivity increases the degree to which the group understands the importance of information elaboration. In an experiment, the authors showed that team reflection fostered the development of task representations emphasizing information elaboration and subsequent information elaboration and decision quality. When all members initially already held representations emphasizing information elaboration, team reflection promoted elaboration and performance to a lesser degree. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bridging faultlines by valuing diversity: Diversity beliefs, information elaboration, and performance in diverse work groups.

Although there are numerous potential benefits to diversity in work groups, converging dimensions of diversity often prevent groups from exploiting this potential. In a study of heterogeneous decision-making groups, the authors examined whether the disruptive effects of diversity faultlines can be overcome by convincing groups of the value of diversity. Groups were persuaded either of the value of diversity or the value of similarity for group performance, and they were provided with either homogeneous or heterogeneous information. As expected, informationally diverse groups performed better when they held pro-diversity rather than pro-similarity beliefs, whereas the performance of informationally homogeneous groups was unaffected by diversity beliefs. This effect was mediated by group-level information elaboration. Implications for diversity management in organizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work Group Diversity and Group Performance: An Integrative Model and Research Agenda.

Research on the relationship between work group diversity and performance has yielded inconsistent results. To address this problem, the authors propose the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), which reconceptualizes and integrates information/decision making and social categorization perspectives on work-group diversity and performance. The CEM incorporates mediator and moderator variables that typically have been ignored in diversity research and incorporates the view that information/decision making and social categorization processes interact such that intergroup biases flowing from social categorization disrupt the elaboration (in-depth processing) of task-relevant information and perspectives. In addition, the authors propose that attempts to link the positive and negative effects of diversity to specific types of diversity should be abandoned in favor of the assumption that all dimensions of diversity may have positive as well as negative effects. The ways in which these propositions may set the agenda for future research in diversity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Threat and selective exposure: The moderating role of threat and decision context on confirmatory information search after decisions.

Previous studies on the impact of perceived threat on confirmatory information search (selective exposure) in the context of decision making have yielded mixed results. Some studies have suggested that confirmatory information search is reduced, yet others have found contradictory effects. The present series of 5 studies consistently found that the crucial moderator for these inconsistent findings was whether the induced threat was contextually related to the subsequent decision and information search tasks. Contextual incongruence (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by an economic decision case) results in reduced levels of confirmatory information search, whereas a congruent threat (e.g., an induction of terrorist threat followed by a decision case on terrorism) results in increased levels of confirmatory information search. Analyses of the underlying psychological processes revealed that decision-unrelated threat inductions increase decision makers' experienced decision uncertainty, thus reducing confirmatory information search. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making in hidden profile situations: Dissent as a facilitator for decision quality.

The effect of diversity in individual prediscussion preferences on group decision quality was examined in an experiment in which 135 three-person groups worked on a personnel selection case with 4 alternatives. The information distribution among group members constituted a hidden profile (i.e., the correct solution was not identifiable on the basis of the members' individual information and could be detected only by pooling and integrating the members' unique information). Whereas groups with homogeneous suboptimal prediscussion preferences (no dissent) hardly ever solved the hidden profile, solution rates were significantly higher in groups with prediscussion dissent, even if none of these individual prediscussion preferences were correct. If dissent came from a proponent of the correct solution, solution rates were even higher than in dissent groups without such a proponent. The magnitude of dissent (i.e., minority dissent or full diversity of individual preferences) did not affect decision quality. The beneficial effect of dissent on group decision quality was mediated primarily by greater discussion intensity and to some extent also by less discussion bias in dissent groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Motives and Strategic Misrepresentation in Social Decision Making.

In 4 experiments, the authors studied the influence of social motives on deception and strategic misrepresentation. In a newly developed information provision game, individuals faced a decision maker whose decision would affect both own and other's outcomes. By withholding information or by giving (in)accurate information about payoffs, participants could try to influence other's decision making. Less accurate and more inaccurate information was given when the decision maker was competitive rather than cooperative (Experiment 1), especially when participants had a prosocial rather than selfish value orientation (Experiments 3 and 4). Accurate information was withheld because of fear of exploitation and greed, and inaccurate information was given because of greed (Experiment 2). Finally, participants engaged in strategic misrepresentation that may trick competitive others into damaging their own and increasing the participant's outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors affecting decision makers' preference for unshared information.

Two experiments examined solicitation of information in a group structured as a judge–advisor system (JAS) with 1 group member designated as the decision maker and the other 2 members as advisors. The decision maker solicited information from 2 advisors. One advisor's information was shared in common with the decision maker, and the other's information was predominantly unshared. In 2 experiments, decision makers asked for more information from the advisor with unshared information and rated this advisor's information as more important and influential than the advisor with only redundant, shared information. When decision makers were not limited in the amount of information they could ask for, decision makers significantly increased requests for information from the advisor with shared information but not the advisor with unshared information. Experiment 2 found that whether or not an advisor agreed with the decision maker did not affect decision makers' preference for the advisor with unshared information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting Dimensions of Diversity: Cross-Categorization and the Functioning of Diverse Work Groups.

The authors conducted an experiment to show how the interplay between informational diversity and other dimensions of diversity can account for some of the inconsistent effects of informational diversity in previous research. A total of 70 four-person groups involved in a decision-making task received homogeneous or heterogeneous information. By manipulating gender composition and bogus personality feedback, the authors created groups that were heterogeneous (i.e., had a strong basis for subgroup categorization) or were homogeneous on these dimensions. In diverse groups characterized by a diversity faultline, heterogeneity of information either converged with or cross-cut the faultline. Results showed that informational diversity enhanced group functioning when it was crossed rather than converged with the existing faultline, which became manifest in increased information elaboration, higher satisfaction, reduced relationship and task conflict, and a better team climate. Extending previous work, these findings show that informational diversity may have positive effects on team functioning even when teams are not homogeneous on other diversity dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spiking Phineas Gage: A Neurocomputational Theory of Cognitive-Affective Integration in Decision Making.

The authors present a neurological theory of how cognitive information and emotional information are integrated in the nucleus accumbens during effective decision making. They describe how the nucleus accumbens acts as a gateway to integrate cognitive information from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus with emotional information from the amygdala. The authors have modeled this integration by a network of spiking artificial neurons organized into separate areas and used this computational model to simulate 2 kinds of cognitive-affective integration. The model simulates successful performance by people with normal cognitive-affective integration. The model also simulates the historical case of Phineas Gage as well as subsequent patients whose ability to make decisions became impeded by damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patients' information needs and decision-making processes: What can be learned from genetic counselees?

This field study investigated the information needs and decision-making strategies of 161 genetic counselees interviewed just prior to counseling. Patients were interested mostly in information about the outcomes and consequences of the alternative options at their disposal and about measures to defuse the risks. They wanted mainly information stated with certainty and were less interested in probability information. There was no difference in the search for information between the alternative eventually chosen and the one not chosen. There was a difference, however, among types of decisions and the interest in the various categories of information. These findings were interpreted within the theoretical model of decision making in natural risky situations (O. Huber, 1997). Practical implications for shared medical decision making are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the nature of associative information in recognition memory.

In a typical associative-recognition task, participants must distinguish between intact word pairs (both words previously studied together) and rearranged word pairs (both words previously studied but as part of different pairs). The familiarity of the individual items on this task is uninformative because all of the items were seen before, so the only way to solve the task is to rely on associative information. Prior research suggests that associative information is recall-like in nature and may therefore be an all-or-none variable. The present research reports several experiments in which some pairs were strengthened during list presentation. The resulting hit rates and false alarm rates, and an analysis of the corresponding receiver operating characteristic plots, suggest that participants rely heavily on item information when making an associative-recognition decision (to no avail) and that associative information may be best thought of as a some-or-none variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When less is enough: Cognitive aging, information search, and decision quality in consumer choice.

We conducted a meta-analysis of age differences in predecisional information search (N = 1,304) that suggests that aging is associated with a small but significant decrease in predecisional information search (Hedges's g = –0.30). In addition, we investigated the consequences of limited information search for decision quality in real-world consumer environments using simulation methods. Overall, the results suggest that the aging decision maker can afford to neglect information because this leads to small losses in decision quality. In other words, less may be enough for the aging consumer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information choice and cue use: An experiment in group information processing.

The literature on group decision making suggests that collective decisions often differ from those of individuals. The present study, through the use of discriminant analysis, sought to account for performance differences between individuals and groups in a loan review situation involving 89 senior accounting or graduate business students. Ss were divided among 23 3-member groups and 20 individual Ss. Each group or individual received information about a business firm and was asked to classify its financial status. Information selection, cue use, and decision consistency were considered as explanatory variables. Results reveal significant performance differences between individual and committee decisions. These differences could not be accounted for by information selection or cue use, but the committees were found to be more consistent in their decisions. Unlike individuals, they were also able to improve their performance with supplementary financial information. Findings suggest that under certain circumstances, group decision making might be more effective than individual decision making because of information-processing advantages and the elimination of random individual error. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive functions, information sampling, and decision making in narcolepsy with cataplexy.

Objective: Narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) affects neurotransmitter systems regulating emotions and cognitive functions. This study aimed to assess executive functions, information sampling, reward processing, and decision making in NC. Method: Twenty-one NC patients and 58 healthy participants performed an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Results: NC patients scored as controls in executive function tasks assessing set shifting, reversal learning, working memory, and planning. Group differences appeared in a task measuring information sampling and reward sensitivity. NC patients gathered less information, tolerated a higher level of uncertainty, and were less influenced by reward contingencies than controls. NC patients also showed reduced learning in decision making and had significantly lower scores than controls in the fifth block of the IOWA gambling task. No correlations were found with measures of sleepiness. Conclusions: NC patients may achieve high performance in several neuropsychological domains, including executive functions. Specific differences between NC patients and controls highlight the importance of the hypocretin system in reward processing and decision making and are in line with previous neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual expectations for group decision processes: Evidence for overestimation of majority influence.

Individuals experience numerous group decision situations during their lives. As a result, they may develop accurate expectations of the social processes and effects of context on group decision situations. Four decision-making situations were constructed that were expected to elicit different group decision processes. Individuals were presented with these hypothetical scenarios in which group size and the preferences of group members varied systematically. Participants’ expectations were elicited from their predictions regarding which alternative the group would choose on the basis of the information presented. The comparison of these judgments with the predicted decision distributions derived from models of group decision making showed that participants had a general sensitivity to changes in contexts, but that they overestimated the effect of the majority opinion on the final decisions. Individuals may have general notions of how groups make decisions but are less sensitive to the subtleties involved in the process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selectivity in exposure to information.

2 hypotheses, derived from Festinger's theory of cognitive differences were tested: following a decision, persons tend to seek information that favors the chosen alternative and to avoid information that favors the rejected alternative; and the more important the decision, the greater is the subsequent selectivity in exposure to information. The method involved eliciting attitudes from college students as to various conditions regarding examination procedures. The hypotheses were supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biased information search in group decision making.

Research has shown that people prefer supporting to conflicting information when making decisions. Whether this biased information search also occurs in group decision making was examined in three experiments. Experiment 1 indicated that groups as well as individuals prefer supporting information and that the strength of this bias depends on the distribution of the group members' initial decision preferences. The more group members had chosen the same alternative prior to the group discussion (group homogeneity), the more strongly the group preferred information supporting that alternative. Experiment 2 replicated these results with managers. Experiment 3 showed that the differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups reflect group-level processes. Higher commitment and confidence in homogeneous groups mediated this effect. Functional and dysfunctional aspects of biased information seeking in group decision making are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of information, situation, and personality on decision making in a clinical setting.

40 graduate students were used as Ss to investigate some relationships among informational, situational, and personality variables and to observe the effects of these variables on various aspects of interpretive decision behavior. The major finding was that high-anal Ss (on the Dynamic Personality Inventory) have less confidence in their interpretations, make fewer specific predictions, and find less pathology in their patients than low-anal Ss. This finding confirms some aspects of the psychoanalytic view of personality and points out that clinical decisions are not independent of the clinician's personality. The effects of ego involvement and different conditions of information on clinical decision making were also investigated. Clear-cut implications about these variables cannot be derived from this study, although some suggestions about the relationship of ego involvement to personality and defense are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information sampling and group decision making: The effects of an advocacy decision procedure and task experience.

Group discussions tend to focus on information that was previously known by all members (shared information) rather than information known by only 1 member (unshared information). If the shared information implies a suboptimal alternative, this sampling bias is associated with inaccurate group decisions. The present study examines the impact of 2 factors on information exchange and decision quality: (a) an advocacy group decision procedure versus unstructured discussion and (b) task experience. Results show that advocacy groups discussed both more shared and unshared information than free-discussion groups. Further, with increasing experience, more unshared information was mentioned in advocacy groups. In contrast, there was no such increase in unstructured discussions. Yet advocacy groups did not significantly improve their decision quality with experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why older adults make more immediate treatment decisions about cancer than younger adults.

Literature relevant to medical decision making was reviewed, and a model was outlined for testing. Two studies examined whether older adults make more immediate decisions than younger adults about treatments for prostate or breast cancer in authentic scenarios. Findings clearly showed that older adults were more likely to make immediate decisions than younger adults. The research is important because it not only demonstrates the consistency of this age-related effect across disease domains, gender, ethnic groups, and prevalent education levels but begins to investigate a model to explain the effect. Major reasons for the effect focus on treatment knowledge, interest and engagement, and cognitive resources. Treatment knowledge, general cancer knowledge, interest, and cognitive resources relate to different ways of processing treatment information and preferences for immediate versus delayed decision making. Adults with high knowledge of treatments on a reliable test tended to make immediate treatment decisions, which supports the knowledge explanation. Adults with more cognitive resources and more interest tended to delay their treatment decisions. Little support was found for a cohort explanation for the relationship between age and preference for immediate medical decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)