Straight choices : the psychology of decision making / Ben Newell, David Lagnado and David Shanks.

Machine generated contents note: Our approach and the plan of this book -- Decisions, decisions -- Summary -- Intuitions about decision quality -- A formal approach to decision quality -- A brief history of judgment and decision-making research -- Summary -- Conceptualizing judgment: the lens model -- Discovering information -- Acquiring information -- Combining information -- Summary -- Learning from feedback -- Feedback or feedforward? -- Decision making in dynamic environments -- Summary -- Correspondence versus coherence criteria -- Bayesian model of probability updating -- Updating beliefs with multiple variables -- Summary -- Errors of coherence -- Support theory -- Errors of correspondence -- Cascaded inference -- The frequency effect -- Summary -- Associative theories of probability judgment -- Extending the associative model -- Associative thinking and mental simulation -- Summary -- A framework for analysing decisions -- The axioms of expected utility theory -- Summary -- Reference-dependence -- The four-fold pattern -- Framing -- Preference reversals -- Compatibility and evaluability -- Effect of experience on preference reversals -- Summary -- A description-experience gap? -- Why under-weighting in repeated consequential decisions? -- Beyond the description-experience gap -- Summary -- Hindsight and other time-related biases -- Predicting pleasure and pain -- Direct effects of time -- Discount rates -- Anticipated emotions -- Summary -- Probability matching -- The linear model -- Choice rules -- Summary -- How close can a decision maker get to optimality? -- Can experts overcome decision biases? -- Limitations of the linear model -- Exemplar theories -- Expertise -- Naturalistic decision making -- Summary -- Characteristics of the two systems -- Evidence for two systems or theoretical 'stone soup'? -- Awareness, insight and unconscious influences -- Summary -- Affective forecasting -- Decisions and emotions -- The affect heuristic and risk as feelings -- Imagery, affect and decisions -- Summary -- Intellective and judgment tasks -- Achieving a consensus -- Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd -- Groupthink: model and evidence -- Summary -- Individual techniques for improving decision making -- Cultural techniques for improving decision making -- Tools for improving decision making -- Choice architecture: the ultimate tool? -- Summary -- When does decision making improve? -- How and why does decision making improve? -- Concluding remarks.

Thoroughly revised and updated throughout, the new edition of Straight Choices provides an integrative account of the psychology of decision making, and shows how psychological research can help us understand our uncertain world. Straight Choices emphasizes the relationship between learning and decision-making, arguing that the best way to understand how and why decisions are made is in the context of the learning and knowledge acquisition which precedes them, and the feedback which follows. The mechanisms of learning and the structure of environments in which decisions are made are carefully examined to explore their impact on our choices. The authors then consider whether we are all constrained to fall prey to cognitive biases, or whether, with sufficient exposure, we can find optimal decision strategies and improve our decision making. Featuring three completely new chapters, this edition also contains student-friendly overviews and recommended readings in each chapter. It will be of interest to students and researchers in cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and the decision sciences, as well as anyone interested in the nature of decision making.