Biomedical subjects

R Ranyard

Publications and source records attributed to R Ranyard.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

The role of internal reference prices in consumers' willingness to pay judgments: Thaler's Beer Pricing Task revisited.

Alternative reference prices, either displayed in the environment (external) or recalled from memory (internal) are known to influence consumer judgments and decisions. In one line of previous research, internal reference prices have been defined in terms of general price expectations. However, Thaler (Marketing Science 4 (1985) 199; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 12 (1999) 183) defined them as fair prices expected from specific types of seller. Using a Beer Pricing Task, he found that seller context had a substantial effect on willingness to pay, and concluded that this was due to specific internal reference prices evoked by specific contexts. In a think aloud study using the same task (N = 48), we found only a marginal effect of seller context. In a second study using the Beer Pricing Task and seven analogous ones (N = 144), general internal reference prices were estimated by asking people what they normally paid for various commodities. Both general internal reference prices and seller context influenced willingness to pay, although the effect of the latter was again rather small. We conclude that general internal reference prices have a greater impact in these scenarios than specific ones, because of the lower cognitive load involved in their storage and retrieval.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

A conversation-based process tracing method for use with naturalistic decisions: an evaluation study.

This study is an evaluation of a process tracing method developed for naturalistic decisions, in this case a consumer choice task. The method is based on Huber et al.'s (1997) Active Information Search (AIS) technique, but develops it by providing spoken rather than written answers to respondents' questions, and by including think aloud instructions. The technique is used within a conversation-based situation, rather than the respondent thinking aloud 'into an empty space', as is conventionally the case in think aloud techniques. The method results in a concurrent verbal protocol as respondents make their decisions, and a retrospective report in the form of a post-decision summary. The method was found to be virtually non-reactive in relation to think aloud, although the variable of Preliminary Attribute Elicitation showed some evidence of reactivity. This was a methodological evaluation, and as such the data reported are essentially descriptive. Nevertheless, the data obtained indicate that the method is capable of producing information about decision processes which could have theoretical importance in terms of evaluating models of decision-making.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Mental accounting and the process of multiattribute choice.

Tversky and Kahneman (1981) discussed how multiattribute choices may be framed in terms of alternative psychological accounts established for specific problems. They identified three levels of account: minimal, topical and comprehensive. The role of these mental accounts is investigated in two studies of Tversky and Kahneman's Jacket and Calculator problem. In the first, systematic variation of jacket and calculator prices showed that the latter had a large effect on choice, and the former a small but significant effect. It is concluded that: (1) the effect of the calculator price supports Tversky and Kahneman's view that people frame simple choices in terms of specific, topical accounts; and (2) the jacket price effect supports the view that more comprehensive mental accounts also influence evaluation and choice. In the second study, think aloud evidence is presented which supports these conclusions and indicates that the level of account adopted may be contingent on characteristics of the choice problem.

Accounting↗