Decision Making Under Stress

Miami University, Oxford OH

Investigators

Abstract

People must often make decisions while being subjected to multiple stressors such as time pressure, performance pressure, or competition for attentional resources from secondary or non-relevant tasks. These circumstances are ubiquitous in both trivial decisions as well as those with significant consequences. The proposed research undertakes a comprehensive examination at how different stressors affect decision making by looking at: 1) how different stressors affect the decision process in addition to decision outcomes, 2) how individual differences in working memory interact with different stressors in decision making, 3) the impact of changes in task complexity, and 4) how alternative theoretical explanations for decision behavior compare. These tasks will be performed using improved eye tracking methodology and metrics This research will generate prescriptive recommendations to benefit diverse fields. First, direct applications of this project extend beyond basic research to interesting applied settings where the stressors under investigation are omnipresent, including situations requiring executive policy, military, and financial investment decisions. Additionally, this research will produce more diagnostic and accurate techniques for measuring attention allocation, information search, and information utilization in decision making. These techniques can then be applied to investigate many other phenomena, such as online instruction environments, consumer behavior research, and human-computer usability.