Cognition and Behavior in Normal-Form Games: An Experimental Study

This paper reports experiments designed to study strategic sophistication, the extent to which behavior in games reflects attempts to predict others' decisions, taking their incentives into account. We study subjects' initial responses to normal-form games with various patterns of iterated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconometrica Vol. 69; no. 5; pp. 1193 - 1235
Main Authors Costa-Gomes, Miguel, Crawford, Vincent P., Broseta, Bruno
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.09.2001
Econometric Society
Blackwell
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Altruism
Analytical estimating
Applied sciences
Bargaining
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive models
Decision making
Econometric models
Econometrics
Economics
Equilibrium
Error rates
Exact sciences and technology
Expected utility
experimental economics
Experiments
Game theory
Human behaviour
Information search
Laboratories
Management science
Model testing
Modeling
Nash equilibrium
Noncooperative games
Normal form games
Operational research and scientific management
Operational research. Management science
Operations research
Strategic planning
strategic sophistication
Studies
United States > US
Economics
Experimental economics
Compliance
Strategic sophistication
Normal form
Experimental game
Cognition
Experimental study
Equilibrium
Game theory
Decision
Non cooperative game
Econometrics
Pattern analysis
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Summary:This paper reports experiments designed to study strategic sophistication, the extent to which behavior in games reflects attempts to predict others' decisions, taking their incentives into account. We study subjects' initial responses to normal-form games with various patterns of iterated dominance and unique pure-strategy equilibria without dominance, using a computer interface that allowed them to search for hidden payoff information, while recording their searches. Monitoring subjects' information searches along with their decisions allows us to better understand how their decisions are determined, and subjects' deviations from the search patterns suggested by equilibrium analysis help to predict their deviations from equilibrium decisions.
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ISSN:0012-9682
1468-0262
DOI:10.1111/1468-0262.00239