A psychological research method, protocol analysis, was applied to gain insight into the decision-making process underlying repeated departure time choice for travel on a road network with stochastic travel times. The focus of the study is on the comprehension of information perception, processing, storage, and retrieval. The results showed that commuters do not think as depicted by rational choice theory. Preference ordering or comparison of outcomes is rarely performed, and travel time and its variation are, in principle, not considered. The analysis of verbalized decisions indicates that although the observed behavior differs greatly from subject to subject, the elements stored in and recalled from memory during decision making are nearly the same for all subjects. These elements are the departure and arrival times on the previous day and long-remembered good or bad experiences with a given departure time. These findings suggest that the general framework that can be used to describe departure time decision making is closer to models of adaptive behavior than to normative models of rational choice.


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    Title :

    How Do Commuters Know When to Leave Home?


    Subtitle :

    Verbal Protocol Analysis of Cognitive Processes


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2008-01-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English