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Sequential Decision Making: An Aggregate Scheduling Methodology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Ronald J. Ebert
Ronald J. Ebert*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

Recent studies of sequential decision making performance have utilized optimal dynamic programming solutions as the criteria for evaluating the quality of human decisions. The difficulties incumbent in increasing the dimensionality of dynamic programming formulations effectively prohibit their extension beyond the case of a single decision variable. In the following article an alternative optimization formulation for a two-decision-variable case is presented, followed by the development of a corresponding one-decision-variable problem. In addition, related methodological problems limiting the comparability of results among previous studies are presented. It is suggested that the proposed problem formulation and its accompanying interpretation for the decision maker largely eliminate these previous methodological problems. Furthermore, the problem formulation permits quantification of the relative weights that should optimally be placed on future decision periods in the multiple-stage decision problem.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 303 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 The Psychometric Society

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