The selection of dimensions for choosing between multiattribute alternatives

Abstract

The criterion-dependent choice model (Aschenbrenner, Albert & Schmalhofer, 1984) assumes that choice between two multidimensionally described alternatives is a sequential comparison process.The decision maker is assumed to select one dimension at a time and to compare the alternatives 1 standings on this dimension according to attractiveness.The resulting value differences are accumulated over the processed dimensions until enough evidence is accumulated so that the decision maker is convinced that one alternative is better than the other.This study concentrates on the process of sequentially selecting dimensions and its relation to judgments of the dimensions' importance.In three experiments the dimensional selection process was observed by different process tracing techniques.Although subjects displayed considerable variability in their dimensional selection over repeated choice tasks, this process was well described probabilistically by Luce's choice axiom.Parameters of dimensional importance which were inferred from the subjects' sequences of processing information agreed well with independently elicited judgments of the dimensions' importance when the judgments were obtained by a magnitude estimation procedure.Importance judgments obtained by rating scales showed worse agreement.When choosing between two alternatives that are described by their features on a number of dimensions or attributes, people often do not consider all the available information about the alternatives; further, people appear to consider neither information on the same dimensions, nor even the same amount of information when choosing among different pairs of alternatives of the same kind, e.g., pairs of journal subscriptions (Schmalhofer, Albert, Aschenbrenner & Gertzen, 1986).We tried to model this phenomenon by means of the criterion -dependent choice (CDC) model (Aschenbrenner, Albert & Schmalhofer, 1984).For binary choices among multidimensionally described alternatives, this model assumes that: a) people process information about the alternatives sequentially; b) people compare the alternatives with respect to the subjective evaluations of the alternatives's features on one dimension at a 1) This research was supported by the Attitude and Behavior research program of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant Al 205/1 -5).

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