title: Linking process and measurement models of recognition-based decisions.
abstract: When making inferences about pairs of objects, one of which is recognized and the other is not, the recognition heuristic states that participants choose the recognized object in a noncompensatory way without considering any further knowledge. In contrast, information-integration theories such as parallel constraint satisfaction (PCS) assume that recognition is merely one of many cues that is integrated with further knowledge in a compensatory way. To test both process models against each other without manipulating recognition or further knowledge, we include response times into the r-model, a popular multinomial processing tree model for memory-based decisions. Essentially, this response-time-extended r-model allows to test a crucial prediction of PCS, namely, that the integration of recognition-congruent knowledge leads to faster decisions compared to the consideration of recognition only-even though more information is processed. In contrast, decisions due to recognition-heuristic use are predicted to be faster than decisions affected by any further knowledge. Using the classical German-cities example, simulations show that the novel measurement model discriminates between both process models based on choices, decision times, and recognition judgments only. In a reanalysis of 29 data sets including more than 400,000 individual trials, noncompensatory choices of the recognized option were estimated to be slower than choices due to recognition-congruent knowledge. This corroborates the parallel information-integration account of memory-based decisions, according to which decisions become faster when the coherence of the available information increases. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim.
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6302-9252
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Heck
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim.
authors.forename: Edgar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Erdfelder
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008568:Memory; D021641:Recognition, Psychology