Morgan Andrew J, Neal Andrew, Ballard Timothy
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2024 Dec;31(6):2811-2822. doi: 10.3758/s13423-024-02523-2. Epub 2024 Jun 10.
We examine the underlying cognitive mechanisms that govern how competitions play out over time. We used cognitive modeling to examine the dynamic effects of time remaining and relative performance (whether the person is winning or losing) on effort and strategy. In this experiment, participants completed a competitive decision-making task with varying time limits and starting scores, in a repeated-measures design. Participants were tasked with scoring more points than their computerized opponent during a certain time frame, gaining and losing points for correct and incorrect decisions, respectively. The results showed that as the competition deadline approached and as participants drew ahead of their opponent within a competition, they increased effort and became more cautious. Furthermore, the effect of relative score on effort and caution changed over the course of a competition as the deadline approached. These results highlight the importance of considering dynamics when working to understand how competitions unfold as well as the underlying cognitive mechanisms that give rise to the dynamic behavior.
我们研究了支配竞争如何随时间展开的潜在认知机制。我们使用认知建模来检验剩余时间和相对表现（个人是赢还是输）对努力程度和策略的动态影响。在本实验中，参与者采用重复测量设计，完成了一项具有不同时间限制和起始分数的竞争性决策任务。参与者的任务是在特定时间内比电脑对手得分更多，正确和错误决策分别得分和失分。结果表明，随着竞争截止日期临近，以及参与者在竞争中领先于对手时，他们会增加努力并变得更加谨慎。此外，随着截止日期临近，相对分数对努力程度和谨慎程度的影响在竞争过程中发生了变化。这些结果凸显了在努力理解竞争如何展开以及产生动态行为的潜在认知机制时考虑动态因素的重要性。
