Effects of Two Sources of Uncertainty in Decision Making

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Abstract
The effects of variation in the stimulus and response uncertainty of a decision task on the decision maker's subjective uncertainty, amount of information search, and information processing were examined. Results indicated that: (a) information search tended to continue until one bit of stimulus and/or response uncertainty remained, independent of the level of initial uncertainty; (b) the higher the stimulus uncertainty of the decision task, the faster S began seeking information; and (c) subjective uncertainty increased with both stimulus and response uncertainty. Unfortunately, the data precluded adequate examination of the possible relationship between subjective uncertainty and search behavior, but the latency of search was negatively correlated with the magnitude of subjective uncertainty across Ss, suggesting that a more extensive examination of the motivational effects of subjective uncertainty would be of value.