The effect of information costs on strategy selection in dynamic tasks

• Published in: Acta psychologica Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 273 - 290
• Main Author: Kerstholt, JoséH.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.12.1996; Elsevier; Martinus Nijhoff
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Cognition. Intelligence; Cost containment; Decision making; Decision making. Choice; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Strategies; Time management; 2340; Decision making; Time management; Cost containment; Strategies; Human; Costs; Selection; Strategy; Cognition; Timing; Experimental study; Information
• ISSN: 0001-6918; 1873-6297
• DOI: 10.1016/S0001-6918(96)00011-X

Previous research on dynamic decision behaviour consistently indicated that individuals tend to use a judgment-oriented strategy. When faced with deteriorating system performance people prefer to select information before they apply an action, even when the straightforward application of actions would result in better task performance. In the present experiment we investigated whether subjects specifically base the selection of their strategy on the costs of information and actions. Subjects had to supervise a running athlete whose fitness level could decrease over time, either slowly (low time pressure) or fast (high time pressure). The fitness decline was due to either a real physiological cause, requiring an action of the subject, or a false alarm in which case nothing needed to be done. The task parameters were chosen such that an action-oriented strategy (only apply actions) would lead to the highest financial outcome in all task conditions. The results indicate that the selected strategy does depend, at least in part, on the relative costs of information: when these costs were relatively low subjects selected a judgment-oriented strategy and when the information costs were relatively high they chose an action-oriented strategy. But although they were responsive to the relative costs of information, subjects still selected a judgment-oriented strategy where an action-oriented strategy would have led to better results. Two factors may account for suboptimal strategy choice: difficulties in trading off the costs of information and its diagnostic value and a neglect of the time dimension. In contrast to previous findings the same effort level was maintained across time pressure conditions. It is suggested that the reaction to time pressure depends on the absolute costs of information. When these costs are low subjects start their diagnostic process soon after the onset of a fitness decline and when these costs are high they wait longer and increase their effort in order to meet the time constraints.