Abstract The article discusses the nature of decision models and information evaluation models. The first section presents a general framework, or model, for information evaluation. The second examines the nature of the operational model that would be constructed in order to apply the general framework in a specific setting. The information evaluation process is viewed in cost-benefit terms; and the cost-benefit, or value, calculation is developed from the point of view of an individual who decides what information to supply. Different signals may result in different decisions, and, therefore, the information evaluator must develop a conditional probability distribution over the future events for each possible signal. Decision models seldom represent as controllable variables all actions that must be taken. Most mathematical models do not attempt to include detailed predictions of individual events. One simplified and well-known method for selecting information systems is to base the selection on personal opinion. Some insights that can be developed by such an exploration were then related to information choice issues and information research methods.
Feltham et al. (Thu,) studied this question.