Decision Fatigue...a New Study that attempts to explain certain types of legal decision-making....

An essay in the New York Times by John Tierney (tierneylab@nytimes.com), a science columnist for The Times (who based his essay on a book he wrote with Roy F. Baumeister, “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength”] talks about a clinical phenomenon called "Decision Fatigue" [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?]
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Kinda interesting. In a study of parole board hearings & awards, the article noted:

..."There was a pattern to the parole board’s decisions, but it wasn’t related to the men’s ethnic backgrounds, crimes or sentences. It was all about timing, as researchers discovered by analyzing more than 1,100 decisions over the course of a year. Judges, who would hear the prisoners’ appeals and then get advice from the other members of the board, approved parole in about a third of the cases, but the probability of being paroled fluctuated wildly throughout the day. Prisoners who appeared early in the morning received parole about 70 percent of the time, while those who appeared late in the day were paroled less than 10 percent of the time".
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In discussing ruling from judges, John Tierney's essay went on to in part say:

..."There was nothing malicious or even unusual about the judges’ behavior, which was reported earlier this year by Jonathan Levav of Stanford and Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University. The judges’ erratic judgment was due to the occupational hazard of being, as George W. Bush once put it, “the decider.” The mental work of ruling on case after case, whatever the individual merits, wore them down. This sort of decision fatigue can make quarterbacks prone to dubious choices late in the game and C.F.O.’s prone to disastrous dalliances late in the evening. It routinely warps the judgment of everyone, executive and nonexecutive, rich and poor — in fact, it can take a special toll on the poor. Yet few people are even aware of it, and researchers are only beginning to understand why it happens and how to counteract it".
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I think I'll buy the book. Maybe every judge, parole board member and attorney (or other high volume decision-maker) should get a copy to better understand the toll heavy calenders, staff shortages and long days create.