Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 28, Number 2
Spring 1997
The Effects of Task Information and Outcome Feedback on Individuals' Insight into Their Decision Models
Brad Tuttle
College of Business Administration, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, e-mail: tuttle@darla.badm.sc.edu
Morris H. Stocks
School of Accountancy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, e-mail: acstocks@sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu
ABSTRACT
When making business decisions, people generally receive some form of guidance. Often, this guidance might be in the form of instructions about which inputs to the decision are most important. Alternatively, it might be outcome feedback concerning the appropriateness of their decisions. When people receive guidance in making difficult judgments, it is important that they do not confuse this guidance with insight into their own decision models. This study examined whether people confuse their actual decision model with task information and outcome feedback. Subjects predicted the likelihood that various hypothetical companies would experience financial distress and then reported the decision models they believed they had used. Their reported models were compared with their actual models as estimated by a regression of the subjects' predictions on the inputs to their decisions. In a factorial design, some subjects were provided with task information regarding the relative importance of each input to their decisions while others were not. Some subjects were provided with outcome feedback regarding the quality of their decisions while others were not. The subjects tended to confuse the task information and outcome feedback with their actual decision models. Implications for the results are discussed.
Subject Areas: Bankruptcy/Financial Distress, Decision Aids, Decision Analysis, Feedback, Insight, and Judgment Analysis.
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