Decision field theory: A dynamic-cognitive approach to decision making in an uncertain environment.

Jerome R. Busemeyer, James T. Townsend·1993·Psychological Review

Abstract

Decision field theory provides for a mathematical foundation leading to a dynamic, stochastic theory of decision behavior in an uncertain environment. This theory is used to explain (a) violations of stochastic dominance, (b) violations of strong stochastic transitivity, (c) violations of independence between alternatives, (d) serial position effects on preference, (e) speed-accuracy trade-off effects in decision making, (f) the inverse relation between choice probability and decision time, (g) changes in the direction of preference under time pressure, (h) slower decision times for avoidance as compared with approach conflicts, and (i) preference reversals between choice and selling price measures of preference. The proposed theory is compared with 4 other theories of decision making under uncertainty.

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    Lee, J. D., See, K. A. · 2004 · Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  3. Representativeness revisited: Attribute substitution in intuitive judgment.
    Kahneman, Daniel, Frederick, Shane · 2002 · Heuristics and Biases
  4. The Diffusion Decision Model: Theory and Data for Two-Choice Decision Tasks
    Ratcliff, Roger, McKoon, Gail · 2008 · Neural Computation
  5. The Affect Heuristic
    Slovic, Paul, Finucane, Melissa, Peters, Ellen, MacGregor, Donald G. · 2002 · Heuristics and Biases

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Decision field theory: A dynamic-cognitive approach to decision making in an uncertain environment. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0033-295x.100.3.432
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Busemeyer, J. R., & Townsend, J. T. (1993). Decision field theory: A dynamic-cognitive approach to decision making in an uncertain environment. Psychological Review. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295x.100.3.432

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