Abstract for: Unconscious Processing of Information in Dynamic Decision-Making – An Experimental Approach

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effects of unconscious versus conscious ways of making decisions in a dynamic decision-making task. An experimental setting is used to study this question; three experimental groups are distinguished: immediate decision-making (only limited time for cognitive processing), distracted decision-making (time for unconscious processing), and considered decision-making (time for conscious processing). As experimental stimulus, a simulator based on the Kaibab Plateau model is employed. Findings are not yet clear, since so far only pre-test have been conducted; the actual experiment will be run in April and May 2008. Implications might comprise the usefulness of rational methods for decision-making, for instance modeling and simulation. The value of the paper lies in the fact that it connects to a recent discussion in psychology and transfers it into a domain in the core interest of the system dynamics community: decision-making in situations with dynamic complexity.