Abadie, M. 1 , Terrier, P. 1 & Villejoubert, G. 2
1 CLLE-LTC Institute, University of Toulouse, France
2 Psychology Research Unit, Kingston University, UK
Recent research suggests that when face a complex decision, people are likely to make better choice if their attention is distracted from the problem rather than focused on it while they deliberate on the best alternative (Dijksterhuis, 2004). The current study aimed to establish whether the nature of the decision task and the presentation format of the choice alternatives a) elicit different levels of mental representation and b) affect decision quality following a period of deliberation with or without attention. In a first experiment, we used a complex quantitative choice task. Results revealed that a detailed format allowed all participants to hold precise verbatim representations and resulted in better decision only when deliberation was conscious. In contrast, a global format led all participants to form fuzzier representations and resulted in improved decisions only when deliberation occurred without attention. In a second experiment, we used a qualitative version of the task. A global format resulted in fuzzier representations and led to better decisions than a detailed format. Altogether these findings suggest that the effect of deliberation type on decision performance is dependent upon the representation elicited by the task. Implications of dual-memory approaches for the study of decision-making will be discussed.