Michael Lissack whereby the ball, subjected to minor random disturbances, can be pushed over into a new pathway on its way through life. We picture this landscape as if it were the landscape of a good three dimensional video game and at all times have an awareness of where we are. The landscape is composed of opportunities, resources, constraints, and obstacles (much like a video game). Because we know where we are on or in this landscape at all times we have a decision about any question. To get to a different decision requires movement within this internal decision landscape. Memory plays a crucial role in the actual execution of decisions. The image inherent in each decision has to be remembered so that the process of matching with familiar information can take place. A person can usually recall some general features along a familiar route, but he cannot remember the specific image of each decision. In order to understand decision exe- cution it is important to differentiate between recall and recognition. The capacity to recognize, that is, to remember in the presence of the object, is far superior to recalling. The process of executing decisions is largely based on recognition. Some recall. though, is necessary for the development of decisions in the first place. In executing a plan, it is assumed that a person continuously matches expected decision images with perceived images. Sometimes a mismatch occurs. Maybe a tree is missing, maybe a house has been repainted. Typically, the person will react with surprise. A mis- match forces a shift from an unconscious decision execution to a conscious decision-making process. A mismatch has something of an alarm effect. In the end the person may have to develop a new plan for a decision that has become a task. or he may have to adjust the image expectancy attached to the decision. Sometimes, through either necessity or a lack of confidence in the out- come portrayed by new information, a line of argument is abandoned. This abandonment can result in the problem solver's backtracking through the problem space to a point that appears to be non-troublesome and promises to allow forward progress. In this process certain variables, or aspects of choice behavior, may be more likely to be incorporated than others about
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