ABSTRACT
Many decision strategies or heuristics can be conceptualized as consisting of search rules, stopping rules, and decision rules (e.g. Gigerenzer, 2004; Payne, Bettman & Johnson, 1993). Search and stopping rules determine which information is looked for in what order, and when to stop information search. For example, if one plans to buy a DVD player, he or she will probably limit information search to certain brands and compare the available options with respect to several attributes that are considered to be important (e.g. price, longevity, disc formats supported etc.). If theories or models make different predictions about the parameters of information search like search order or depth of search, information search tracing methods (see Norman & Schulte-Mecklenbeck, chapter 2, this volume) can be used to differentiate between models. The decision rule on the other hand describes the manner of information integration after the search has stopped. You may, for instance, deliberate and weigh pros and cons of the DVD players, or you may decide according to the most important aspect, or you may just follow an overall intuition or feeling about the most preferred option. Note that a clear distinction between information search and later information integration is only assumed by some models. Many models that also account for intuition (see Glöckner & Witteman, chapter 1, this volume) assume an instant integration (e.g., accumulation) of information.
