A Psychologically Plausible Goal-Based Utility Function

Utility is a concept that is central to economics, finance, and decision theory. In the informing sciences, it also plays a central role: that of explaining the client’s motivation to be informed. Unfortunately, existing economic models of utility are plagued by many anomalies when applied to individual clients and also fail to incorporate many important features that are relevant to informing contexts, such as the desire for mastery and learning. The present paper draws upon goal setting theory and cognitive psychology to propose an alternative view of utility that is better adapted to informing situations. It further proposes that in a given task setting, an individual’s utility function will evolve with experience, from satisfying loose generic goals into a highly compiled task progress monitoring function. During the course of this evolution, the client will pass through a phase where utility is heavily determined by progress towards specific task goals. The implications of this more psychologically plausible model of utility for informing systems are discussed.