THE DIMENSIONAL EFFECTS OF MISSING INFORMATION ON CHOICE PROCESSING

This paper demonstrates that choice processing may be different in mis sing information situations than in full information situations depend ing on whether inferences are used to fill in missing values and the o verlap of the missing information itself. It is shown that when indivi duals do not form inferences to fill in missing values, fewer full att ribute-based processes and more processes which accommodate for missin g attribute values, alternative-based or given-dimension attribute-bas ed, are used. It is also shown that when a processing shift due to mis sing information does occur, the overlap of the missing values will af fect the type of shift that takes place. If overlap is high, a shift t o given-dimension attribute-based processing is more likely, and when overlap is low, a shift to alternative-based processing is more likely . When individuals do form inferences to fill in missing values, proce ssing is more similar to that in full information situations. Finally, it is shown that individuals will often partially fill in missing inf ormation, thus moderating the proposed effects.