Heuristic/Systematic Model

what is the sufficiency threshold

- "People exert as much effort as is required to have a sufficient degree of confidence for their goal" - The point at which cognitive processing stops and/or you begin to have high confidence in your opinion

what is the principle of least effort

- People prefer less effortful to more effortful modes of information processing

what does the model state

- individuals can process messages in one of two ways: heuristically or systematically. - The whole theory relies on this idea that individuals will first process heuristically and if they do not reach sufficiency then they will move on to process systematically.

systematic

When there is a large discrepancy between desired level and actual confidence level. -

Heuristic

When there is little or no discrepancy between desired level of confidence and actual confidence level.

how does desired level of confidence affect the amount of processing

- If you desire to have a high level of confidence in your processing, you will have a high sufficiency threshold (higher standards for when you feel you have enough information). If you desire to have a low level of confidence in your processing, you will have a low sufficiency threshold (low standards)