The Study On Recognition Heuristic In Consumer Choice

Recognition heuristic,which means if one of two objects is recognized but not the other,it is inferred that the recognized object scores higher on some criterion,is one of the critical decision making strategy.In the current study we examine the role of recog-nition in preferential choice,in which subjects had to choose one of a pair of consumer objects that were presented with quality ratings(positive,neutral,and negative).The results showed that(a)young and old adults' recognition heuristic was an equally useful cue for making consumer choice;(b)as with young adults,old adults adjusted their use of the recognition heuristic between environments with high and low recognition va-lidities,they both have ability of environment and item adaptivity;and(c)old adults,however,showed constraints in their ability to adaptively suspend the recognition heu-ristic on specific items.Cognitive speed mediated these age-related constraints;and at last(d)Neuroticism partially mediated these individual differences.