An Examination of Two Screen/Report Design Variables in an Information Recall Context*

Abstract

This paper considers the question of how much time and effort should be spent in preparing a bid for a single item of known value sold at a first-price sealed-bid auction. A decision-theoretic approach to this bid decision summarizes the decision maker's knowledge of the competitive environment through his or her subjective probability distribution of the highest competing bid. Research activities such as collecting and analyzing bid histories are efforts to obtain additional information that reduces the uncertainty in the highest competing bid. The decision-theoretic concepts of expected value of perfect and imperfect information are used to place an economic value on such research activities. The results presented allow the decision maker to quantify the expected value of imperfect information when the uncertainty is normally distributed. The results show that additional research is most valuable prior to auctions the bidder expects to win.Subject Area: Decision Analysis.

The Role of Presentation Format on Decision-makers’ Behaviour in Accounting

“…Similarly, studies have found that presentation format affects recall (Metcalfe et al, 1981;Umanath et al, 1990;Clements and Wolfe, 1998;Umanath et al, 1998;Hodge et al, 2004;Nouri and Douglas Clinton, 2006). The results of such studies are consistent.…”

The influence of information presentation formats on complex task decision-making performance

“…Just as information presentation formats can be defined as spatial or symbolic, the most prominent categorization of task type within information presentation research also involves the distinction between symbolic and spatial task processing (Umanath et al, 1990;Vessey, 1991). Symbolic tasks require the recall or identification of precise data values (e.g., what were 2Q 2005 net sales for Amazon?)…”

“…Symbolic tasks require the recall or identification of precise data values (e.g., what were 2Q 2005 net sales for Amazon?) (Umanath et al, 1990). Alternatively, spatial tasks assess the problem area more holistically and often involve trend analysis or other types of information associations (e.g., Are Amazon's s net sales improving, stable, or decreasing over the last four quarters?)…”

“…Alternatively, spatial tasks assess the problem area more holistically and often involve trend analysis or other types of information associations (e.g., Are Amazon's s net sales improving, stable, or decreasing over the last four quarters?) (Umanath et al, 1990;Vessey, 1991).…”

Designing product listing pages on e-commerce websites: an examination of presentation mode and information format

“…The dual coding theory has been applied successfully to understand the effectiveness of verbal versus imagery presentation modes in a wide range of contexts, including computer assisted learning (Lalley, 1998), printed advertisements (Unnava and Burnkrant, 1991), individual creativity support systems (Malaga, 2000), and decision support systems (Umanath et al, 1990). …”