A MODEL OF DECISION-MAKING FOR THE INTEGRATED HUMAN-COMPUTER INFORMATION PROCESSOR (MAN-MACHINE)
Abstract
Rational decision-making has until recently solely been the province of human beings. However, with the advent of computers this picture is changing. Typically the human decision-maker is assisted in the decision process by a computer; and, although this is a common phenomenon, theories of decision-making still focus on the decision-makers being assisted by other humans. In this thesis a theory of decision-making is proposed which considers the human and computer working together towards the solution of a decision problem. The computer is considered to have at least the capabilities of a Decision Support System, this allows one to view the human as the principal and the computer as an agent. Thus, information-gathering actions which the computer is capable of performing more efficiently than the human are delegated to the computer, while other information-gathering actions, which the computer is not capable of performing, or would be very inefficient in doing, are performed by the human. This integrated information processing view of the human and computer allows one to define various decision-making strategies based on the conditions under which information-gathering actions are performed by the human or the computer. Finally, for the only correct guesses count problem (a special case of the categorization problem), sufficient conditions under which the various decision-making strategies are optimal are determined.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Management
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