Research Details

Abstract

This report summarizes cutting-edge research thinking on how negotiators learn. A person's ability to access knowledge is highly dependent on how it is learned, and memory failures often result from accessibility difficulties rather than from capacity limitation or information deficit. Furthermore, there is often a disassociation between what is most accessible in memory and what is most useful in tackling the particular problem being confronted. Counter to intuitive expectations, the ability to take full advantage of our prior experiences is highly limited because it relies primarily upon superficial similarities among what was learned in the classroom and in the real world. Instead, we propose that negotiators utilize analogical encoding, which allows for comparison of multiple, structurally similar examples, and provides a cost effective and conceptually straightforward mechanism for improving negotiating skills.

Type

Article

Author(s)

James J. Gillespie, Leigh Thompson, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Dedre Gentner

Date Published

1999

Citations

Gillespie, James J., Leigh Thompson, Jeffrey Loewenstein, and Dedre Gentner. 1999. Lessons from Analogical Reasoning in the Teaching of Negotiation. Negotiation Journal.(4): 363-371.