Straight Choices

Should I have this medical treatment or that one? Is this computer a better buy than that one? Should I invest in shares or keep my money under the bed? We all face a perplexing array of decisions every day. Thoroughly revised and updated throughout, the new edition of Straight Choices provides an integrative account of the psychology of decision-making, in which clear connections are made between empirical results and how these results can help us understand our uncertain world. Straight Choices emphasises 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 e

Ben Newell is an Associate Professor in Cognitive Psychology and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. David Lagnado is Senior Lecturer in Cognitive and Decision Sciences in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London, UK. David Shanks is Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, and Professor of Psychology, at University College London, UK.