PHASED NARROWING - A NEW PROCESS TRACING METHOD FOR DECISION-MAKING

A new process tracing technique is presented which combines elements o f traditional process tracing methods and methods designed to study th e prescreening of choice options and the formation of consideration se ts. To demonstrate its usefulness, we provide data from a consumer dec ision making task in which subjects were asked to narrow the number of options over three successive decision stages from 18 to 6 to 3, and finally to 1. By examining the attribute values of the options selecte d at each stage, unique insights were gained into how both decision st rategies and the impact of each attribute changed during the decision process and how these changes were related to measurable individual di fference factors. The method, which we refer to as phased narrowing, i s compared to and offered as a supplement to traditional process traci ng approaches. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.