Performance in Tangible and in Cognitive Stock-Flow Tasks

Jürgen Strohhecker and Andreas Größler

Simulation & Gaming, 2015, vol. 46, issue 3-4, 230-254

Abstract: Background. Most research in the area of dynamic decision making in general and stock-flow failures in particular is conducted with the help of computerized simulations as task environments or paper-based tasks of simple dynamic systems. Purpose. The purpose of this article is to investigate if stock-flow failures persist in naturalistic decision making environments. Methods. For this purpose, a tangible stock-flow experiment is used. It asks participants to meet a target level of water in a glass by pouring water through a funnel as fast as possible. We then compare their performance with a purely cognitive task (a manufacturing task ). Results. Participants on average did not significantly perform better in a tangible stock-flow task than in a paper-based test of a comparable task. In addition, individual performance in the tangible task cannot be related to performance in a similar paper-pencil stock-flow task. Conclusions. An implication of this study is that tangible stock-flow tasks are as difficult for humans to control as are purely cognitive tasks. Further research should address individual differences between the two task modes (tangible vs. cognitive). A limitation of this study is the usage of only one tangible stock-flow task.

Keywords: cognitive task; computerized simulations; dynamic decision making; experiment; hypothesis testing; individual differences; manufacturing task; naturalistic decision making; paper-based test; stock-flow failure; system dynamics; tangible stock-flow task; task performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046878115577160 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:simgam:v:46:y:2015:i:3-4:p:230-254

DOI: 10.1177/1046878115577160

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Simulation & Gaming
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().