People switch decision strategies according to the effort and accuracy a task demands, so there is no single process to model.
Choosing lunch, people satisfice on the first acceptable option; choosing a mortgage, they build a comparison table. Payne's finding is that the switch is sensible, not lazy — the strategy is fitted to the stakes.
In practice
- Buying coffee, you take the first acceptable option; buying a house, you build a spreadsheet with fourteen columns and still visit twice.
- A hiring panel screens 200 CVs on two criteria, then spends four hours on the final three candidates.