Scientific article
OA Policy
English

The Cognitive Underpinnings of Option Generation in Everyday Life Decision-Making: A Latent Variable Analysis

Published inCognitive science, vol. 42, no. 8, p. 2562-2591
Publication date2018
Abstract

The ability to generate options for action is crucial for everyday life decision-making. In this article, we propose and test a model of the cognitive underpinnings of option generation in everyday life situations. We carried out a laboratory study using measures of a wide range of cognitive functions and asked participants (N = 157) to generate options for actions for different everyday life decision-making scenarios. The results of a latent variable analysis show that the cognitive underpinnings of option generation are consistent across different everyday life situations and, hence, option generation can be conceptualized as a general construct. Moreover, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis reveal that, when controlling for the shared variance among the cognitive processes assessed, verbal fluency, working memory capacity, ideation fluency, and processing speed predicted option generation. These findings suggest that option generation in everyday life situations can be distinguished from other cognitive constructs, such as divergent thinking (in terms of ideas' originality) and long-term memory.

Keywords
  • Adult
  • Cognition/physiology
  • Creativity
  • Decision Making/physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Memory
  • Long-Term/physiology
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Young Adult
Affiliation entities Not a UNIGE publication
Citation (ISO format)
LEDER, Johannes et al. The Cognitive Underpinnings of Option Generation in Everyday Life Decision-Making: A Latent Variable Analysis. In: Cognitive science, 2018, vol. 42, n° 8, p. 2562–2591. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12678
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Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0364-0213
346views
323downloads

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