Inducing imperfect recall in the lab

Cary Deck () and Sudipta Sarangi

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2009, vol. 69, issue 1, 64-74

Abstract: Our paper provides a procedure to induce imperfect recall in the laboratory, even though in the past it has been claimed that this is difficult to achieve in a controlled environment. To accomplish this task we rely on a technique called divided attention to impair subject recollection of previous choices in a version of the absent-minded driver game of Piccione and Rubinstein [Piccione, M., Rubinstein, A., 1997a. On the interpretation of decision problems with imperfect recall. Games and Economic Behavior 20, 3-24]. The results suggest that a substantial number of subjects experience imperfect recall yet still behave in a rational manner. The observed behavior is consistent with a large portion of the subjects falling prey to the temporal paradox as suggested by Piccione and Rubinstein [Piccione, M., Rubinstein, A., 1997a. On the interpretation of decision problems with imperfect recall. Games and Economic Behavior 20, 3-24].

Keywords: Imperfect; recall; Experiments; Absent-minded; driver's; paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:69:y:2009:i:1:p:64-74

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