INFORMATION, ASSOCIATIVITY, AND CHOICE REQUIREMENTS

The common view of cross-set consistency requirements is to hold them as either ethical or technical requirements. The line of research presented here views consistency requirements as information processing efficiency requirements on a choice process. It is shown that path independence axioms impose a hierarchy on the binary system, originally considered by Plott, that is consistent with intuitive notions of information processing efficiency. The hierarchy provides discrimination among the five principal path independence axioms. Implications for information processing in group decision-making mechanisms are noted. © 1990.