Using Cognitive Feedback to Detect Changes in a Task Environment

Abstract

The focus of decision making research has been shifting from static to dynamic environments during the last twenty years. Dynamic environments include not only changes in environmental cue values, but in relationships between cues and environmental states. Previous research has demonstrated decision makers are insensitive to statistical properties of the environment, and may encounter difficulty in determining changes in the underlying probabilistic structure of the environment. This research uses cognitive feedback based on the Lens Model to assist detection of environmental changes. Eighty participants attempted to predict the price of a single share of common stock for 150 fictitious companies using four financial indicators. Initial results suggest groups receiving some form of cognitive feedback adapted to changing environments better than groups not receiving cognitive feedback.

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