Decision Making Under Uncertainty (Advances in Psychology 16)

The topics discussed in this volume are of interest for several disciplines. The impact of the contributions presented in this volume on DECISION RESEARCH (FISCHHOFF), COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (ZIMMER), DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (WALLER), SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (BORCHERDING), ECONOMIC THEORY (SELTEN), and MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (STEINER) is outlined by researchers from these disciplines who were present at the Symposium. Of course, other disciplines, e.g. medicine, social sciences, mathematics, that were not represented, might also affected or challenged by the results and propositions documented in this volume. Naturally, the representatives of the different disciplines emphasize different aspects. Although from a decision theoretical perspective, methodological problems and questions of research strategies (e.g. top down vs. bottom up) seem to be most significant, conceptual issues about the nature of human knowledge are regarded as creating important research problems in other fields. The comments made by the mathematics educational view show the innovative power of a growing discipline. The methodology of mathematization is shown to be inextricably connected with the social dimensions of learning and instruction. Mathematics in general (and not only statistics and probability theory) is loosing its unique feature of always being either right or wrong when put into a social context (e.g. the classroom). Furthermore, as several of the papers point out, if the dynamic views were to be emphasized, we may not only expect decision research to have an impact on mathematics research but also the other way round.