Accession Number:

ADA505178

Title:

Choosing Among Causal Agents in a Dynamic Environment

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 1 May 2007-30 Apr 2009

Corporate Author:

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIV AT CARBONDALE

Personal Author(s):

• Young, Michael E.

Report Date:

2009-07-30

Pagination or Media Count:

9.0

Abstract:

Participants in a video game environment were required to make a series of decisions in which they must identify which of three targets was causing a distal explosion. The potential targets were firing weapons which could produce an explosion after a constant or variable delay, a delay that was filled or unfilled with an auditory event, and may have produced explosions probabilistically. Delays had profound effects on accuracy and decision latencies, decreasing weapon effectiveness from 100 to 50 had little effect on accuracy and modest effects on latencies men only, filling a delay helped under very limited conditions, and varying the delay actually improved performance for longer average delays. Furthermore, mens decision accuracy was higher but not when prior video game experience was controlled for. In contrast, women observed their targets for much longer before making a choice regardless of prior experience. The results disconfirmed the proposed forward inference model and instead supported the operation of a backward inference model of causal choice.

Descriptors:

• *DECISION MAKING
• *DELAY
• *ACCURACY
• FIRING MECHANISMS(WEAPON)
• GAME THEORY
• TARGETS
• WEAPON SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS
• WOMEN
• MODELS
• STRESS ANALYSIS
• WEAPONS
• STATISTICAL INFERENCE

Subject Categories:

• Administration and Management
• Test Facilities, Equipment and Methods

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE