Duration neglect by numbers—And its elimination by graphs

People tend to neglect duration when retrospectively evaluating aversive experiences, causing memories to be at odds with experienced pain. However, memory was not involved in the original demonstration of duration neglect. Instead, people evaluated others’ experiences represented by lists of discom...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organizational behavior and human decision processes 2009-03, Vol.108 (2), p.303-314
Main Authors: Liersch, Michael J., McKenzie, Craig R.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Bias
Biases
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition. Intelligence
Decision making. Choice
Duration neglect
Duration neglect Peak
Elimination
end rule Hedonic experience Heuristics Biases
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Graph theory
Graphs
Hedonic experience
Heuristics
Memory
Neglect
Organizational behaviour
Peak/end rule
Perception
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self-evaluation
Studies
Time
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:People tend to neglect duration when retrospectively evaluating aversive experiences, causing memories to be at odds with experienced pain. However, memory was not involved in the original demonstration of duration neglect. Instead, people evaluated others’ experiences represented by lists of discomfort ratings. Duration was said to be neglected because attention was focused on peak and end ratings. Three experiments are reported demonstrating that graphs rather than number lists can make duration neglect disappear without increasing attention to episode duration. Graphs can eliminate duration neglect because, relative to number lists, strategies that incorporate duration are more easily employed. The results suggest that when hedonic information does not have to be remembered, people will use all, not just peak and end, moments when evaluating experiences, and that format presentation affects how people combine those moments. Caution is recommended when making theoretical and prescriptive generalizations based on duration neglect.
ISSN:0749-5978
1095-9920
DOI:10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.07.001