106 Understanding Rational Decision Making
group level is “the degree to which information, ideas, or cognitive processes are shared or are
being shared among the group members.”^11
The information-processing approach is also the leading theoretical approach to the emergingfi eld of team cognition and decision making.^12 Much like a single individual, a team makes deci-
sions on the basis of internalized cognitive processes rather than automatically accepting any new
information presented to it.^13
Figure 3.3 represents a famous early model of a simple decision-making task developed by psy-chologist Saul Sternberg that inspired many cognitive scientists to adopt the information-processing
approach.^14 The model predicts that people go through four elementary steps when deciding
whether a particular one-digit number (e.g., 7) is a part of a multiple-digit number (e.g., 472) they
had memorized earlier. First they perceive the one-digit number, then they compare it to each digit
in the multiple-digit number they had memorized, then they make their decision, and fi nally they
generate a response.
Tests of the model showed that people take each step in the model in sequence and indepen-dently of the other steps. If the one-digit number were made to look blurry and hard to perceive,
only the time subjects took to complete the perception step was affected. If a digit were added to
the memorized multiple-digit number, subjects took an additional 38 milliseconds to complete
the comparison step but took no additional time to complete the other steps. If subjects had been
biased to decide yes or no before they saw the one-digit number, only the time taken to complete
the decision-making step was affected.
Outside the laboratory, audiences are less likely to take each subsequent step in the decision-makingprocess than the step before it. For example, the decision to comply with warning labels and signs
has been shown to be impeded because people rarely perceive the warnings in the fi rst place.^15
Only 24% of the swimmers at a high school pool they regularly used recalled seeing the conspicu-
ous “NO DIVING” sign next to it. Only 20% of the students in a home economics class recalled
seeing any information on an iron they regularly used for two weeks despite the fact the iron was
clearly labeled with a hazard warning.^16
Even if audience members do perceive information, they may not attend to and comprehend it.In another study of warning labels, although 88% of the consumers in the study recalled seeing the
warning on the product, only 46% read even a portion of the warning.^17 Moreover, only 27% made
the decision to comply with the warning. Prior steps in the decision-making process can infl uence
subsequent steps in other ways as well. For example, faster recognition of letters and words predicts
better comprehension skills, whereas increases in comprehension do not predict increases in word
recognition.^18
The information-processing approach has several other important characteristics. It focuses onthe mental behaviors of individuals and views people as active, goal-oriented information proces-
sors, not as passive blank slates to be written upon. It acknowledges, for example, that audiences
STIMULUS PERCEPTION COMPARISON DECISION RESPONSEExample: After the subject memorized the number 472, Sternberg asked, “Does the number
you memorized include 7?”7 Perceive 7 = 4? 7 = 7? 7 = 2? Make Generate “Yes”
stimulus decision responseFIGURE 3.3 Sternberg’s Information-Processing Model of a Simple Decision