Analyses of Bounded Rationality: Towards Economic Decision-Making

Farley S.M. NobreEmail: fsn019@bham.ac.uk or farley.nobre@chek.com

Home Page: http://web.bham.ac.uk/fsn019/fsnobre.html

Ph.D. StudentThe University of Birmingham, England

Guest ResearcherThe Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany

Seminar of Behavioural EconomicsJuly 11th 2003

Analysis and Design of Organisational Systems: Towards a Unified Theory

1. Problem Choice and Analysis

2. Solution Design:Definitions, Variables,

and Propositions

5. Evidences and Conclusions: Theory as Proposed vs. Findings

Part I

Part II

3. Data Gathering4. Data Analysis

Parts III and IV

Part V

Fig.1. Thesis Structure and Its Process of Theorizing

Contents: Part I – Problem Analysis

i. Classical Theories on Rationalityii. Bounded Rationality Theoryiii. The Genesis of Bounded Rationality Theoriesiv. Economic Decision-Making and Approximate

Reasoningv. Organisations and Conflictsvi. Conclusions

Contents: Part II – Solution Design

i. Proposal: CTP - explores bounded rationality theories

ii. Cognitive Psychology Modelsiii. A Model of Information-Processing Systemsiv. Knowledge Representation and Organisationv. Computing Perceptions for Decision-Makingvi. Conclusions

Motivations(i) Organisations subsume economic decision-making and problem

solving processes that involve trade-offs among alternatives characterised by uncertainties and incompleteness of information. Such processes lead organisational members to both intra-individual and group conflicts.

(ii) The former conflict arises in an individual mind and it can emerge from the influence of others. The latter type arises from differences between the choices made by distinct individuals in the organisation. In this case, individual participants are not in conflict but the organisation as a whole is.

(iii) The intra-individual and group conflicts that arise in organisations as exposed in (ii) are determined by cognitive limits of humans, and thus these conflicts cannot be solved by incentive and reward systems - i.e. inducements. Such cognitive limitations are synonymous of bounded rationality [March and Simon, 1993].

Part I:Problem Analysis

Part I: (i) Classical Theories on Rationality

Rationality is synonymous of: optimal choice; optimal procdures and outcomes

(intelligence); statistical decision analysis.

Rationality is defined as: A particular class of procedures for making

choices [March, 1994].

Part I: (i) Classical Theories on Rationality

The Theory of Subjective Utility (SEU): It underlies neo-classical economics; It postulates that choices are made:

a) among a given, fixed set of alternatives;b) with (subjectively) known probability distributions of

outcomes for each;c) And in such a way to maximize the expected value of

a given utility function.

[Simon, 1997a]

Part I: (ii) Bounded Rationality Theory

Bounded Rationality [Simon, 1947; and March and Simon, 1958]:

It is also concerned with rational choice; But it takes into account the cognitive limitations of the decision

maker; It is concerned with human decision-making processes; It is investigated on the basis of empirical knowledge of the

capabilities of the human mind, and thus on the basis of psychology research.

Humans have limitations of both: Knowledge and computational capcity:

For discovering alternatives; Computing their consequences under certainty or uncertainty; And making comparisons among them.

Part I: (ii) Bounded Rationality Theory

Theories of Bounded Rationality [Simon, 1997a]: Can be generated by relaxing one or more of the

assumptions of the SEU theory.

New assumptions subsume that: Alternatives are not simply given, and thus they have to be

generated by some processes; probability distributions of outcomes are unknown, and thus they

have to be estimated by some procedures; Satisfactory is used rather than optimal or maximal standards; Probability distributions are unknown and they cannot be

estimated due to the sources uncertainty - like vagueness, instead of ambiguity.

Part I: (iii) The Genesis of Bounded Rationality

• Bounded rationality emerged with the advent in cognitive psychology research (Bruner and Piaget), and thus cognitive science and artificial intelligence along the 1950’s [Newell and and Simon, 1972].

• Cognitive psychology deals with high mental processes, rather than with stimuli and responses of behaviourism.

• Cognitive psychology aims the scientific research on models of human mind and its processes like perception, attention, categorisation, concept formation, knowledge representation, memory, language, probelm solving, decision making - among others.

Part I: (iv) Economic Decision-Making and Approximate Reasoning

Bounded Rationality is: Synonymous of Economic Decision-Making.

Since it concerns the use of cognitive processes to the achievement of low solution cost, robutness, and tractability to the reality.

Agents have cognitive limitations, but they are also constrained by time and space.

Humans [Zadeh, 1965 and 1973]: Have a remarkable ability for reasoning in complex

environmnets, under uncertainties, where information is ill-defined, incomplete, or lacking in reliability.

Human reasoning is approximate rathen than exact (driving a car in a havy traffic, sharing stocks, and so on).

Part I: (iv) Economic Decision-Making and Approximate Reasoning

Eg.- Parking a car- Travelling sallesman problem

Solutions for Travelling Sallesman Problem

Numbe of Cities Accuracy of Solution

Computing Time

100,000 1.00% 2 days

100,000 0.75% 7 months

1,000,000 3.50% 3.5 hours

[Zadeh, 1994] - Source: New York Times

Part I: (v) Organisations and ConflictsOrganisations of Today: (i) The members of organisations are decision makers and problem solvers [March and Simon, 1993].(ii) Processes of decision-making and problem solving involve trade-offs among alternatives

characterised by uncertainties and incompleteness of information, and hence they lead organisational members to both intra-individual and group conflicts.

(iii) The intra-individual and group conflicts that arise in organisations as exposed in (ii) are determined by cognitive limits of humans, and thus these conflicts cannot be solved by incentive and reward systems. Such cognitive limitations are synonymous of bounded rationality.

(iv) The members of organisations have motives that differ from organisational goals. (Use of incentive and reward systems for alignment and equilibria).

(v) Organisations shape participants’ behaviour through social structure, technology, and goals, and participants shape organisations through their behaviour, motives, and cognitive skills.

(vi) The environment shapes organisations (i.e. their social structure, technology, goals, participants, and behaviour), through its sources of complexity and uncertainty, but also through information, services, goods, and so technology.

(vii) Organisations also shape the environment through the same means.

Part I: (vi) Conclusions

Bounded rationality theories complement classical theories on rationality, but they also extend them to the analysis of human decision-making behaviour as it happens in real-world (everyday) situations. New approaches of decision analysis has to be considered in order to coupe with uncertainties that do not lie with statistical and analytical tools as applied to rational choices under certainty and risk (probabilities).

Part II:Solution Design

Part II: (i) Proposal CTP [Zadeh, 2001]CTP - Computational Theory of Perceptions

• Humans have a remarkable capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measuments, and so any computation of numbers:

• Parking a car; • Playing golf;• Cooking a meal;• And summarizing a story.

• Instead, humans use information which are formed from perceptions – like information of time, distance, colour, lenght, spped, possibility, likelihood, truth, and so on.

Part II: (ii) Cognitive Psychology ModelsPerceptual Symbol Systems

[Barsalou, L.W., 1999] Perceptual Symbol Systems. Behavioral and Brain Science, 22.

Figure 1: Perceptual Symbol Systems

Analogue Modal Symbols

Extraction

Reference

Perceptual States (si=1,...,M)

Perceptual Symbols (pi=1,...,M)

Part II: (ii) Cognitive Psychology ModelsAmodal Symbol Systems (Information-Processing Systems)

Perceptual States (s i=1,...,M )

Arbitrary Amodal Symbols

New Representational Structure

Transduction

Reference

(CAR = y i=1,...,N) (wheels = y1,...,4)

(doors = y5,6) (colour = y7)

…

[Barsalou, L.W., 1999] Perceptual Symbol Systems. Behavioral and Brain Science, 22.

[Newell, A. and Simon, H.A. 1972] Human Problem Solving. Prentice-Hall.

Figure 2: Amodal Symbol Systems

Part II: (iii) A Model of Information-Processing Systems

[Newell, A. and Simon, H.A. 1972] Human Problem Solving. Prentice-Hall.

Figure 3: A Model of Information-Processing Systems

Receptors EffectorsProcessor

Memory

Environment

Part II: (iii) CTP - receptor

• CTP concerns a collection of description of perceptions expressed in a natural language.

• Examples: • It is unlikely that there will be a significant increase in the price

of oil in the near feature.• Diana is young.• Traffic is heavy.• Inflation is low and stocks are a little cheaper.• Most Swedes are tall.• Usually Robert returns from work at abot 6 pm.

Part II: (iii) CTP - receptor

• Natural language involves linguistic variables:• Inflation = [very high, high, not very high, moderate, low,...]• Cost = [expensive, cheap]• Age = [very young, young, middle age, old, very old]• Status = [rich, not so poor, poor]

Part II: (iv) Knowledge Representation Membership Functions of Fuzzy Sets [Zadeh, 1965]

(s)

1

0.5

0 105 Inflation (%)

low high

inflation = {low, high}

(s)

1

0.5

0 200100 Cost (US$)

low high

cost = {cheap, expensive}

R1: If inflation is low THEN cost is cheap

R2: If Inflation is high THEN cost is high

Part II: (v) Computing Perceptions for Decision-Making

• IF-THEN rules:• R1: IF incentives are high AND production is efficient

THEN organisational satisfaction is moderate.• R2: IF incentives are low AND production is efficient

THEN organisational satisfaction is moderate.• R3: IF incentives are high AND production is poor THEN

organisational satisfaction is moderate.• R4: IF incentives are low AND production is poor THEN

organisational satisfaction is bad.

Deriving conclusions from fuzzy rules of inference

Part II: (vi) Conclusions

Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic are new approaches that explore uncertainties in decision-making processes by using natural language based information;They support CTP and they emerged as a new approach to deal with complex problems as those found in social sciences;They were proposed to fulfil the gap between analyses of non-living (machines) and living systems (behavioural) [Zadeh, 1962].

References1. [Barsalou, L.W., 1999] Perceptual Symbol Systems. Behavioral and Brain Science, 22.2. [March, J.G. 1994] A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen. The Free Press.3. [March, J.G. and Simon, H.A. 1958] Organizations. 1st Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.4. [March, J.G. and Simon, H.A. 1993] Organizations. 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.5. [Newell, A. and Simon, H.A. 1972] Human Problem Solving. Prentice-Hall.6. [Simon, H.A. 1997a] Models of Bounded Rationality: Empirically Grounded Economic

Reason. Vol.3. The MIT Press. (1st Ed. publisged in 1947).7. [Simon, H.A. 1997b] Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in

Administrative Organizations. The FREE Press.8. [Zadeh, L.A. 1962] From Circuit Theory to System Theory. Proceedings of the IRE, 50:

856-865. 9. [Zadeh, L.A. 1965] Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control, 8: 338-353. 10. [Zadeh, L.A. 1973] Outline of a New Approach to the Analysis of Complex Systems and

Decision Process. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 3 (1): 28-44.11. [Zadeh, L.A. 1994] Soft Computing and Fuzzy Logic. IEEE Software, November: 48-56.12. [Zadeh, L.A. 2001] A New Direction in AI: Toward a Computational Theory of

Perceptions. AI Magazine. Spring: 73-84.