Pillars of judgment: How memory abilities affect performance in rule-based and exemplar-based judgments.

Abstract

Making accurate judgments is an essential skill in everyday life. Although how different memory abilities relate to categorization and judgment processes has been hotly debated, the question is far from resolved. We contribute to the solution by investigating how individual differences in memory abilities affect judgment performance in 2 tasks that induced rule-based or exemplar-based judgment strategies. In a study with 279 participants, we investigated how working memory and episodic memory affect judgment accuracy and strategy use. As predicted, participants switched strategies between tasks. Furthermore, structural equation modeling showed that the ability to solve rule-based tasks was predicted by working memory, whereas episodic memory predicted judgment accuracy in the exemplar-based task. Last, the probability of choosing an exemplar-based strategy was related to better episodic memory, but strategy selection was unrelated to working memory capacity. In sum, our results suggest that different memory abilities are essential for successfully adopting different judgment strategies.

When high working memory capacity is and is not beneficial for predicting nonlinear processes

“…Given that in our experimental design these are the most recently completed trials before extrapolation, this should require very little working memory resources. Supporting this assumption, Hoffmann et al (2014) found that WMC was not related to performance in exemplarbased judgment tasks at all. It is unclear, however, whether higher WMC participants will use simple exemplar-based strategies if this is sufficient, or whether they will try to apply rules even if this strategy does not pay off.…”

“…These processes arguably encompass storage and transformation of information-key facets of working memory (Oberauer, Süß, Wilhelm, & Wittman, 2003). In categorization and multiplecue judgment, WMC indeed predicted performance in tasks requiring rule-based strategies (Hoffmann, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2014). The involvement of WMC is particularly high when more cues need to be considered or more complex rules need to be abstracted (Karlsson, Juslin, & Olsson 2008;Mata et al, 2012).…”

Different strategies for evaluating consumer products: Attribute- and exemplar-based approaches compared

“…Sujan, 1985). In general, attribute-based cognitive processes are thought to be of a reflective and deliberate nature and constrained by cognitive resources such as working memory capacity (Ashby & Maddox, 2005;Hoffmann, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2014;Juslin, Karlsson, & Olsson, 2008). …”

“…For instance, when evaluating the worth of a bottle of wine one may think back to the price of a similar wine encountered in the past, for instance from the same vineyard, region or year. In contrast to attribute-or rule-based processes, exemplar-based processes are assumed to be implicit and automatic processes that rely on episodic memory and only require relatively little working memory capacity (Ashby & Maddox, 2005;Hoffmann et al, 2014;Juslin et al, 2008).…”

“…For instance, people with better episodic memory rely more frequently on exemplar-based processes (Hoffmann et al, 2014). In contrast, older participants or participants with more knowledge about the task and how cues relate to the criterion tend to rely on attribute-based processes (Mata, von Helversen, Karlsson, & Cüpper, 2012;von Helversen et al, 2013).…”