Collaborative Research on the Dynamics of Candidate Evaluation

这个项目的主要目标是开发一个计算机程序来模拟形成政治职位候选人印象的认知过程。该计划将成为研究人员认知和评估理论的模型，并将解释什么信息被关注，信息如何存储在记忆和检索中，以及如何将可用信息整合到候选人的总结评估中。目前的投票理论对候选人评价中的认知做出了不切实际的假设，并且没有对这些假设进行严格的检验。研究人员的大量实证研究将提供有关公民候选人评价的信息，为认知理论和候选人评价理论的检验提供依据。

The major goal of this project is to develop a computer program to model the cognitive processes involved in forming impressions of candidates for political office. The program will be a model of the researchers' theory of cognition and evaluation and will account for what information is attended to, how the information is stored in memory and retrieved, and how available information is integrated into a summary evaluation of candidates. Current theories of voting make unrealistic assumptions about cognition in candidate evaluation and do not subject their assumptions to rigorous testing. A large empirical study by one of the researchers will provide the information on citizen candidate evaluation that can be used in testing the theory about cognition and candidate evaluation.