Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment.¶
Simon, H. A. (1956). Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment. Psychological Review, 63(2), 129-138.
Cited by¶
8 citations across 8 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Bounded Rationality
- Fourth, the procedure's outputs must be compared not against an impossible global optimum but against feasible alternatives in the actual environment, measuring performance relative to environment-procedure fit.
This sourceEnvironment-structure fit; ecological foundations of bounded rationality; supports the claim that outputs must be evaluated against feasible alternatives in the actual environment (environment-procedure fit).
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
Simon's abstract contrasts adaptive and rational models and their fit to observed behavior, but states no prescription to judge procedures against feasible alternatives.
“Moreover, in the limited range of situations where the predictions of the two theories have been compared (see [7, Ch. 9, 10, 18]), the learn-ing theories appear to account for the observed behavior rather better than do the theories of rational behavior.”
- Fourth, the procedure's outputs must be compared not against an impossible global optimum but against feasible alternatives in the actual environment, measuring performance relative to environment-procedure fit.
- Boundedness
- T5 — Bound as discovery versus bound as design choice.
This sourcecompanion to Simon (1955) — distinguishes bounds that are features of the environment (discovered constraints) from bounds set as design choices, each with different epistemic status and revision processes.
- T5 — Bound as discovery versus bound as design choice.
- Refinement
- Refinement is pragmatic: it aims for "good enough" or "fit for purpose" rather than optimal, the bounded-rationality stance Simon (1956) named "satisficing."
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
The abstract supplies the bounded-capacity premise behind satisficing but never uses the word 'satisficing' or 'good enough'; the term attribution is unverified from the abstract.
“A comparative examination of the models of adaptive behavior employed in psychology (e.g., learning theories), and of the models of rational behavior employed in economics, shows that in almost all respects the latter postulate a much greater complexity in the choice mechanisms, and a much larger capacity in the organism for obtaining information and performing computations, than do the former.”
- Refinement is pragmatic: it aims for "good enough" or "fit for purpose" rather than optimal, the bounded-rationality stance Simon (1956) named "satisficing."
- Satisficing
- … experience; (2) searches through options sequentially rather than exhaustively, evaluating each option against the aspiration level; (3) terminates search upon finding an option that meets the aspiration level — accepting that option without evaluating whether better ones exist elsewhere in the option space
This sourceIntroduces the "satisfy + suffice" portmanteau; establishes the environment-fit framing — satisficing is rational given the structure of the environment. Seminal statement of ecologically rational decision-making. Cross-G3 B3 candidate: shared with bounded_rationality (#67) — verify dedup at B3.*
- … experience; (2) searches through options sequentially rather than exhaustively, evaluating each option against the aspiration level; (3) terminates search upon finding an option that meets the aspiration level — accepting that option without evaluating whether better ones exist elsewhere in the option space
Mechanisms¶
- Bound-Based Candidate Screening
- It is the practical face of satisficing against a moving bar.
This sourceDefines satisficing as accepting the first alternative that meets an adaptive aspiration bound.
- It is the practical face of satisficing against a moving bar.
- Fixed-Inventory Configuration Sprint
- Because it aims at sufficient rather than optimal, it is a working instance of satisficing — stopping at the first configuration that clears the bar rather than searching for the best one — which is the right stance when the deadline is real.
This sourceIntroduces satisficing as search that stops at an alternative meeting an aspiration level rather than continuing to optimize.
- Because it aims at sufficient rather than optimal, it is a working instance of satisficing — stopping at the first configuration that clears the bar rather than searching for the best one — which is the right stance when the deadline is real.
- Minimum Safe Stabilization
- Stabilization is satisficing — good-enough, not optimal — and the good-enough state has a way of quietly becoming the final state once the acute pressure lifts and attention moves on.
This sourceDefines satisficing as choosing a satisfactory or good-enough alternative rather than optimizing.
- Stabilization is satisficing — good-enough, not optimal — and the good-enough state has a way of quietly becoming the final state once the acute pressure lifts and attention moves on.
- Satisficing Threshold Rule
- The word, and the concept, come from Herbert Simon.
This sourceIntroduces satisficing as a model of rational choice using simple mechanisms to find alternatives that meet needs without optimizing a utility function.
- The word, and the concept, come from Herbert Simon.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 2 of 8 citations: 2 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.
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Links previously used in the corpus¶
Before the registry existed this work was also linked 1 other way.
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