Reasoning and decision making

Research in decision making frequently assumes that judgments and decision are based on the attributes of the decision options and the importance the decision maker assigns them. However, during the decision process people frequently retrieve similar instances or decision situations that they have previously encountered from memory — so called exemplars. I am interested in understanding how these memories influence the decision process.

In diagnostic reasoning a decision maker has to find the best possible explanation for a set of observed symptoms. Decision options are usually predefined and the information is presented sequentially. Recent research has shown that in such situations, diagnosticians try to come up with a coherent interpretation of the presented symptom information. In my research, I am interested in how memory processes shape diagnostic decisions.

Relevant publications

Klichowicz, A., Rosner, A., & Krems, J., F. (2022). More than storage of information: What working memory contributes to visual adductive reasoning. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 18(3), 203-214. https://doi.org/10.5709/acp-0366-1

Rosner, A., Basieva, I., Barque-Duran, A., Glöckner, A., von Helversen, B., Khrennikov, A., & Pothos, E. M. (2022). Ambivalence in decision making: An eye tracking study. Cognitive Psychology, 134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2022.101464

Rosner, A., Schaffner, M., & von Helversen, B. (2021). When the eyes have it and when not: How multiple sources of activation combine to guide eye movements during multi-attribute decision-making. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000833

Klichowicz, A., Lippoldt D. E., Rosner, A., & Krems, J. F. (2021). Information stored in memory affects abductive reasoning. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01460-8

Klichowicz, A., Strehlau, S., Baumann, M. R. K., Krems, J. F., & Rosner, A. (2020). Tracing Current Explanations in Memory: A Process Analysis Based on Eye-Tracking. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73, 1703-1717. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021820922509

Krefeld-Schwalb, A., & Rosner, A. (2020). A new way to guide consumer’s choice: Retro-cueing alters the availability of product information in memory. Journal of Business Research, 111, 135-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.08.012

Rosner, A., & von Helversen, B. (2019). Memory shapes judgments: Tracing how memory biases judgments by inducing the retrieval of exemplars. Cognition, 190, 165-169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.004

Scholz, A., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2017). Watching diagnoses develop: Eye movements reveal symptom processing during diagnostic reasoning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1398-1412. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1294-8

Scholz, A., von Helversen, B., & Rieskamp, J. (2015). Eye movements reveal memory processes during similarity- and rule-based decision making. Cognition, 136, 228–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.019