A tutorial on DynaSearch: A Web-based system for collecting process-tracing data in dynamic decision tasks

• Published in: Behavior research methods Vol. 51; no. 6; pp. 2646 - 2660
• Main Authors: Lindell, Michael K., House, Donald H., Gestring, Jordan, Wu, Hao-Che
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Data Collection - methods; Decision Making; Humans; Internet; Psychology; Statistical analysis; Surveys and Questionnaires; Process tracing; Web-based experiments; Dynamic decision making
• ISSN: 1554-3528; 1554-3528
• DOI: 10.3758/s13428-018-1119-3

This tutorial describes DynaSearch, a Web-based system that supports process-tracing experiments on coupled-system dynamic decision-making tasks. A major need in these tasks is to examine the process by which decision makers search over a succession of situation reports for the information they need in order to make response decisions. DynaSearch provides researchers with the ability to construct and administer Web-based experiments containing both between- and within-subjects factors. Information search pages record participants’ acquisition of verbal, numeric, and graphic information. Questionnaire pages query participants’ recall of information, inferences from that information, and decisions about appropriate response actions. Experimenters can access this information in an online viewer to verify satisfactory task completion and can download the data in comma-separated text files that can be imported into statistical analysis packages.