Using Hierarchical Information Integration to Model Consumer Responses to Possible Planning Actions: Recreation Destination Choice Illustration

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Abstract
This paper outlines a study of recreational preferences designed to assess the usefulness of the method of hierarchical information integration for the study of complex decisionmaking processes which involve many potentially influential attributes. We assume that individuals who face complex decision problems initially group or classify influential attributes into subsets called decision constructs; then they rank these decision constructs into some overall preference for or choice among competing opportunities. To implement this conceptualization of individuals' cognitive processes we first measure overall preferences for recreational choice alternatives by creating separate experimental designs to study how individuals define each decision construct. Next we develop a design to integrate the decision constructs themselves so that we can observe how individuals' choices among, or preferences for, recreational opportunities change as we change how good an opportunity is with respect to each decision construct. The results of the study suggest that hierarchical information integration may be a potentially useful method to study complex decisionmaking problems of interest to planners and policy makers. Some avenues for further research are discussed. Substantively, our results indicate that natural environment and accessibility, and maintenance have the most influence on the Eindhoven sample's preferences for and choices among parks. Some heterogeneity in preferences is also observed.