Sampling Behavior of the Human Process Monitor *

Abstract

This experimental study compared the actual sampling behavior of the human process monitor with that of an optimal dynamic decision model. One experiment involved a passive monitoring task, while another experiment also required the subjects to perform digital control actions in a compensatory control mode. A general finding from both experiments was that the sampling behavior of the subjects tended to differ significantly from the norm provided by the optimal model. Such differences between subjective and normative sampling intervals, the extent and direction of which varied between the different experimental conditions, appeared to be systematic with significant correlations between these intervals for all subjects in the passive monitoring case but for only three of eight control cases.

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