Journal of Dynamic Decision Making

How we conceptualize climate change: Revealing the force-dynamic structure underlying stock-flow reasoning

Kurt Stocker, Joachim Funke — Tue, 07 May 2019 00:00:00 +0200

How people understand the fundamental dynamics of stock and flow (SF) is an important basic theoretical question with many practical applications. In this paper, we present a universal frame for understanding stock-flow reasoning in terms of the theory of force dynamics. This deep-level analysis is then applied to two different presentation formats of SF tasks in the context of climate change. We can explain why in a coordinate-graphic presentation misunderstandings occur (“SF failure”), whereas in a verbal presentation a better understanding is found. We end up with recommendations for presentation formats that will help people to better understand SF dynamics. Better public SF understanding might in turn also enhance corresponding public action – such as enhancing pro-environmental actions in relation to climate change.

Collective Risk Social Dilemma: Role of information availability in achieving cooperation against climate change

Medha Kumar, Varun Dutt — Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Behaviour change via monetary investments is a way to fighting climate change. Prior research has investigated the role of climate-change investments using a Collective-Risk-Social-Dilemma (CRSD) game, where players have to collectively reach a target by contributing to a climate fund; failing which they lose their investments with a probability. However, little is known on how variability in the availability of information about players’ investments influences investment decisions in CRSD. In an experiment involving CRSD, 480 participants were randomly assigned to different conditions that differed in the availability of investment information among players. Half of the players possessed a higher starting endowment (rich) compared to other players (poor). Results revealed that investments against climate change were higher when investment information was available to all players compared to when this information was available only to a few players or to no one. Similarly, investments were higher among rich players compared to poor players when information was available among all players compared to when it was available only to a few players or to no one. Again, the average investment was significantly greater compared to the Nash investment when investment information was available to all players compared to when this information was available only to a few players or to no one. We highlight some implications of our laboratory experiment for human decision-making against climate change.

Evidence for the dynamic human ability to judge another's sex from ambiguous or unfamiliar signals

Justin Michael Gaetano — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Humans make decisions about social information efficiently, despite – or perhaps because of – the sheer scale of data available. Of these various signals, sex cues are vitally important, yet understanding whether participants perceive them as static or dynamic is unknown. The present study addressed the related question of how expertise impinges on sex judgements. Participants were asked to target female and male exemplars from a set of own- or other-race hand images. Data show: (1) that the own-race sex categorisation advantage observed previously using face stimuli can occur in relation to hands, and (2) sensitivity of Asian participants, but not Caucasian participants, is dynamic relative to how many fe/males there are in a set. Implications of these findings are discussed as further evidence that there exists a pan-stimulus sex processor, and as fresh evidence that human sex perception can change probabilistically.

Dynamic MouselabWEB: Individualized Information Display Matrixes

Zeliha Yıldırım, Semra Erpolat Taşabat — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

This paper introduces Dynamic MouselabWEB, a computerized process tracing tool that was designed to create flexible decision-making settings that are similar to real life. While Dynamic MouselabWEB is an extension of MouselabWEB, it differs in that it creates individualized information display matrixes (IDMs) rather than presenting predetermined IDMs, so participants decide on the attributes and alternatives before the decision task. This structure can improve the involvement of decision-makers in the decision process and it gives researchers a chance to observe decision-making behaviors and to explore new decision-making strategies when the decision task has only the decision-makers’ important attributes and appealing alternatives. In order to measure the effect of this dynamic structure, two groups of students worked on job selection tasks, one in the Dynamic MouselabWEB program (n = 32) and one in the traditional MouselabWEB program (n = 20). Results indicate a significant difference between the decision-making behaviors of these two groups. The students who chose a job on Dynamic MouselabWEB were informed more and they spent more time on task than the other group; in other words, they were involved more in the decision process.

On the future of complex problem solving: Seven questions, many answers?

Wolfgang Schoppek; Andreas Fischer; Joachim Funke, Daniel Holt — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

While research on complex problem solving (CPS) has reached a stage where certain standards have been achieved, the future development is quite ambiguous. Therefore, we were interested in the views of representative authors about the attainments and the future development of that field. We asked the authors to share their point of view with respect to seven questions about the relevance of (complex) problem solving as a research area, about the contribution of laboratory-based CPS research to solving real life problems, about the roles of knowledge, strategies, and intuition in CPS, and about the existence of expertise in CPS.

Complex problem solving research and its contribution to improving work in High Reliabilty Organisations

Annette Kluge — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

Research on complex problem solving (CPS) has reached a stage where certain standards have been achieved, whereas the future development is quite ambiguous. In this situation, the editors of the Journal of Dynamic Decision Making asked a number of representative authors to share their point of view with respect to seven questions about the relevance of (complex) problem solving as a research area, about the contribution of laboratory-based CPS research to solving real life problems, about the roles of knowledge, strategies, and intuition in CPS, and about the existence of expertise in CPS.

Complex problem solving: A gem to study expertise, strategic ﬂexibility, culture, and so much more; and especially to advance psychological theory

Dominik Güss — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

A ﬂashlight on attainments and prospects of research into complex problem solving

Wolfgang Schoppek — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

A new orientation for research on problem solving and competencies in any domain

Andreas Fischer — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

Complex problem solving in search for complexity

Joachim Funke — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

The future of problem solving research is not complexity, but dynamic uncertainty

Magda Osman, Denis Omar Verduga Palencia — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

Heigh-Ho: CPS and the seven questions – some thoughts on contemporary Complex Problem Solving research

Jens Beckmann — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100

Quo Vadis CPS? Brief answers to big questions

Matthias Stadler, Samuel Greiff — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0100