Memory

Working memory “holds on to small amounts of information for short periods of time-usually few seconds-while people engage in such ongoing cognitive activities, as reading, listening, problem solving, reasoning, or thinking.” However, to ne retained, this information must be transferred from short-term working memory to long-term memory: “[T]he system must constantly discard what is no longer needed at the moment, and devote its resources to the temporary storage of incoming information. Unless special effort is made- such as repeating a sentence over and over again- information is lost from the system almost immediately after it enters.”

p.30

[G]etting information intro long-term memory can be an important first step toward accurate memory. But even memories that are stored in long-term memory can deteriorate as time passes: “At relatively early points on the forgetting curve- minutes, hours and days, sometimes more- memory preserves a relatively detailed record, allowing us to reproduce the past with reasonable if not perfect accuracy. But the passing of time, the particulars fade and opportunities multiply for interference… to blur our recollections.

p.31

Decision Making

[W]e do not generally cannot make decisions based on full information. Gathering information is costly, time consuming, and sometimes impossible.

(…)

[H]uman beings rely on a variety of cognitive strategies, or heuristics, that depart in predictable ways from an idealized judgment model. But were we to try to make decisions based on full information, we would often not be able to make any decisions at all.

p.86

Not only can the process of searching or waiting for irrelevant information be costly, but it also change the nature of the decision, turning information that initially has no value into information that influences the decision. Because people do not want to conceive of themselves as seeking out irrelevant information, the fact that they have sought the information implies that it is relevant and worthy of attention.

p.87

[F]inally a tendency to avoid losses can incline people to overweight sunk cost – that is costs that have already been incurred. Because such costs are not recoverable decisions about whether to invest additional resources (for example, time or money) should not take them into account. Nevertheless, decision making is often influenced by such previous investments.

p.92

People seek to make decisions they can justify- to themselves and to others. Thus, given options that are similarly attractive, people tend to choose that one that they are best able to explain or defend.

(…)

First, it turns out to be very easy to recruit reasons to support preferred decision outcomes whether or not such reasons actually underlie the decision and whether or not the use of such reasons results in the best choice. Indeed, it can be easy to produce justifications for even questionable decisions. Such