Review on Secretary Problem Study:When to Stop Searching Information?
Liu Qing-shun, Yuan Wang, Kanliang Wang · Application of Statistics and Management · 2009
The Secretary Problem(SP)is a class of decision task on sequential observation and selection in which describes the dynamic decision process with searching information stage by stage,and the es- sential decision is when to stop searching newer information and not which alternative to be chosen.In the paper,we label optimal policy and heuristic rule to many previous SP researches by the differences of study method and theory foundation.Based on hypothesis of decision-maker's complete rationality,the optimal policies proved optimal solutions to SP by mathematics model,but many experiential researches find that people would not conform to the optimal policies to solve SP and often stop searching earlier comparing with the optimal threshold.The descriptive researches based on bounded rationality hypoth- esis explain the decision behavior of deviation from optimal policy and propose heuristic rules.Finally, we suggest future study problems and perspectives about SP on the ground of reviews and analyses.