Task effects on decision quality in traveling salesperson problems

Abstract

In this study, the time allocation problem faced by a traveling salesperson is used as a context in which to test hypotheses about information processing. A laboratory experiment is used to test hypotheses about the effects on decision quality of (1) varying the degree of congruence between the information provided and the type of processing required by the decision task, and (2) increasing the information processing load. It was found that these task manipulations did influence decision quality in the expected directions. Furthermore, in this decision context, subjects had little intuitive feeling for how well they had performed on the decision task.