In accounting for phenomena present in preferential choice experiments, modern models assume a wide array of different mechanisms such as lateral inhibition, leakage, loss aversion, and saliency. These mechanisms create interesting predictions for the dynamics of the deliberation process as well as the aggregate behavior of preferential choice in a variety of contexts. However, the models that embody these different mechanisms are rarely subjected to rigorous quantitative tests of suitability by way of model fitting and evaluation. Recently, complex, stochastic models have been cast aside in favor of simpler approximations, which may or may not capture the data as well. In this article, we use a recently developed method to fit the four extant models of context effects to data from two experiments: one involving consumer goods stimuli, and another involving perceptual stimuli. Our third study investigates the relative merits of the mechanisms currently assumed by the extant models of context effects by testing every possible configuration of mechanism within one overarching model. Across all tasks, our results emphasize the importance of several mechanisms such as lateral inhibition, loss aversion, and pairwise attribute differences, as these mechanisms contribute positively to model performance. Together, our results highlight the notion that mathematical tractability, while certainly a convenient feature of any model, should neither be the primary impetus for model development nor the promoting or demotion of specific model mechanisms. Instead, model fit, balanced with model complexity, should be the greatest burden to bear for any theoretical account of empirical phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record

IntroductionCOVID-19 has confronted clinicians with a potential need to ration ventilators. There is little guidance for training medical students to make such decisions in future practice. How students would make ventilator triage decisions remains unknown. MethodsOne hundred fifty-three medical students in 18 problem-based learning groups participated in a ventilatorrationing exercise in April 2020 as part of an ethics curriculum adapted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were provided with a prompt requiring fictional patients to be prioritized for ventilators in the face of scarce resources. The authors reviewed group responses, tallied triage criteria, and identified approaches to triage decisions. ResultsThe most common triage criteria were patient comorbidities, clinical status, age/life stage, prognosis, life expectancy, and an individual's role in pandemic response. Additional criteria included quality of life, ventilator availability, public perception, and patient need. Students approached triage decisions by developing systems for triage, appealing to empirical evidence and academic literature, making value judgments, and identifying adjuncts and alternatives to triage. DiscussionWith minimal input from educators, students learned key ethical principles in triage medicine, recapitulated approaches to triage described in the clinical and bioethics literature, and suggested methods for tolerating distress of complex ethical decisions. Medical education should equip students to critically consider bioethical concerns in triage and prepare for possible moral distress during public health crises.

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