This study explored how four product decision characteristics - decision set size, attribute value format, display format, and information sorting - interact to influence a decision maker's cognitive load. Researchers conducted a 3x2x2x2 between-subject experiment with 23 participants making 72 product choices each under different conditions. Results showed the decision characteristics significantly impacted cognitive load, with the largest effects seen for decision set size and attribute value format. Cognitive load only increased with the largest decision set size in the matrix display format condition. The findings have implications for designing online decision-making tools.

1. How Product Decision
Characteristics Interact
to Influence Cognitive Load:
An Exploratory Study
Sylvain Sénécal,
Pierre-Majorique Léger,
René Riedl, and Fred D. Davis
June 13th 2017, Gmunden, Austria
Gmunden Retreat on NeuroIS 2017

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Research objective:
Explore how product decision
characteristics interact to influence
the decision maker’s cognitive load

3. © Copyright Léger (2017)
Four decision
characteristics
▪▪ Decision set size
▪▪ Attribute value format
▪▪ Display format
▪▪ Information sorting

4. © Copyright Léger (2017)
Cognitive Load
Theory (CLT)

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Methodology
▪▪ 3x2x2x2 Between-subject experiment
▪▪ 23 participants
▪▪ 72 product choices
(3 sets of 24 choices)
▪▪ 20 seconds to perform each choice
▪▪ Total : 1656 product choices
were collected

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Experimental design
▪▪ Decision set : 3, 5, or 7 alternatives
and 3, 5, or 7 attributes per alternative
(i.e., 3x3, 5x5, or 7x7 decision set)
▪▪ Attribute value format :
value format vs attribute values
▪▪ Display format :
matrix format vs text format
▪▪ Information sorting :
sorted fashion vs unsorted manner
Product A Product B Product C
Price $169 Reputation 2.5 stars Warranty 5 years
Reputation 3 stars Warranty 4 years Price $139
Warranty 5 years Price $139 Reputation 3 stars

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Instruments
SMI (Teltow, Germany)

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Results
Results suggest that decision
characteristics influence decision
makers’ actual cognitive load
Effect
Num
DF
Den DF F Value P Value
Decision set size (3, 5, 7) 2 1594 87.83 <.0001
Attribute value format (unit of measure) 1 1594 517.65 <.0001
Decision set size*Attribute value format 2 1594 23.37 <.0001
Display format (matrix or text) 1 1594 0.05 0.8304
Decision set size*Display format 2 1594 6.14 0.0022
Attribute value format*Display format 1 1594 1.16 0.2810
Information sorting 1 1594 11.69 0.0006
Decision set size*Information sorting 2 1594 4.28 0.0141
Attribute value format*Information sorting 1 1594 25.64 <.0001
Display format*Information sorting 1 1594 0.35 0.5515
Decision quality 1 1594 4.12 0.0426
Decision time 1 1594 1.13 0.2889

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Results
In the matrix condition, cognitive
load only showed an increase when
the decision set was the largest
PupilLS-Mean
LS-Mean for Size *Display
Size
3.24
3.26
3.28
3.30
3.32
3.34
3 5 7
Display Matrix Test

10. © Copyright Léger (2017)
Conclusion
▪▪ Interactions among decision
characteristics and their influence
on cognitive load.
▪▪ Implications for practice,
especially for online decision-
making tools