Speed, Quality, and the Optimal Timing of Complex Decisions: Field Evidence

Strittmatter, Anthony; Sunde, Uwe; Zegners, Dainis (4. February 2022): Speed, Quality, and the Optimal Timing of Complex Decisions: Field Evidence. Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190, Discussion Paper No. 317

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the relation between decision speed and decision quality for a real-world setting of cognitively-demanding decisions in which the timing of decisions is endogenous: professional chess. Move-by-move data provide exceptionally detailed and precise information about decision times and decision quality, based on a comparison of actual decisions to a computational benchmark of best moves constructed using the artificial intelligence of a chess engine. The results reveal that faster decisions are associated with better performance. The findings are consistent with the predictions of procedural decision models like drift-diffusion-models in which decision makers sequentially acquire information about decision alternatives with uncertain valuations.

• Item Type: Paper (Discussion Paper)
• Keywords: response times, speed-performance profile, drift-diffusion model, uncertain evaluations
• Faculties: Economics > Collaborative Research Center Transregio "Rationality and Competition"
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• JEL Classification: D01, D09, C07, C08
• Language: English