A Query Approach to Modeling Attendance to Attributes in Discrete Choice Experiments

Overlooking respondents' attribute attendance in choice experiments affects coefficient estimates, model fit, performance measures, and welfare estimates. How best to identify and account for individual attribute processing strategies is still unclear. Query theory suggests that preferences are subject to the processes and dynamics associated with retrieval from memory. We apply Query theory to the study of attendance to attributes to approximate the thoughts generated by individuals while they make choices in a choice experiment. Our results demonstrate that the stated and query approaches improve model fit and performance. The query approach has distinct advantages but also important limitations.