On Optimal Satisficing: How Simple Policies Can Achieve Excellent Results

J. Neil Bearden () and Terry Connolly ()
Additional contact information
J. Neil Bearden: University of Arizona
Terry Connolly: University of Arizona

A chapter in Decision Modeling and Behavior in Complex and Uncertain Environments, 2008, pp 79-97 from Springer

Abstract: Herbert Simon introduced the notion of satisficing to explain how boundedly rational agents might approach difficult sequential decision problems. His satisficing decision makers were offered as an alternative to optimizers, who need impressive computational capacities in order to maximize their payoffs. In this chapter, we present a simplified sequential search problem for a satisficing decision maker, and show how to compute its optimal satisficing search policies. Our analyses provide bounds on the performance of satisficing search policies.

Keywords: Decision Maker; Optimal Policy; Search Cost; Decision Alternative; Aspiration Level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:spochp:978-0-387-77131-1_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9780387771311

DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-77131-1_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Optimization and Its Applications from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().