Coherence-Based Reasoning: Modelling Integration and Search of Sequentially Presented Information

• Applicant: Dr. Marc Jekel
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 451253565

Humans distort information to achieve coherent interpretations of information in perception, reasoning, and judgment and decision making. Distortion is systematic in the sense that information that fits the emerging interpretation is overweighted and information that does not fit is underweighted. ICodes, a member of the family of parallel-constraint satisfaction network models, has been developed to describe and predict those coherence-based processes in judgment and decision making in a formalized manner. In the current proposal, we aim to extend iCodes by adding a specification for coherence-based mechanisms when pieces of information are presented sequentially one at a time. Qualitative and quantitative predictions derived from comprehensive model simulations about information distortion, preferences, processing time, confidence, and memory-based recall of information are planned to be tested in extensive experimental studies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants