PROCESS TRACING INVESTIGATION INTO PROBLEM-SOLVING WITHIN RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE APPRAISAL

The goal of this investigation is to initiate research into problem solving in one ill-structured domain using the theories and findings of well-structured problem solving as a foundation. A process tracing technique was employed to study the problem solving behavior of twelve students and twelve experts in residential real estate appraisal. To compare subject processes, protocols were conceptualized as frequency distributions and were compared using Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit tests. Other nonparametric techniques were employed to examine single point response variables. Experts were discovered to solve appraisal problems in a manner inconsistent with the normative model, the Appraisal Process. This nonnormative behavior held when task settings were familiar to the subject as well as when tasks had unfamiliar locational settings. Student behavior also was nonnormative. This finding prevented the straightforward extension of well-structured problem solving theories into this ill-structured environment. Neither experts nor students could recall the normative model indicating that the departure from normative behavior was not deliberated at a conscious level. Experts were found to spend less time than students on information search. Experts also were found to spend less time on information search with the locationally unfamiliar task than with the familiar task. This tendency may be evidence of an heuristic with the potential to produce suboptimal judgments. On a less statistically formal level, the observation was made that expert behavior was less cognitively demanding than the normative model. Similarly, two general information search strategies were observed. The strategy favored by experts could not guarantee optimal selections but was less cognitively demanding than the search strategy favored by students. The tendency to minimize cognitive effort is the finding which unifies this investigation. Implications for future research are discussed.