Using cognitive modeling to examine the effects of competition on strategy and effort in races and tournaments

We investigated the effects of two types of competition, races and tournaments (as well as an individual challenge and a do-your-best condition), on two different aspects of performance: effort and strategy. In our experiment, 100 undergraduate participants completed a simple cognitive task under fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychonomic bulletin & review 2023-06, Vol.30 (3), p.1158-1169
Main Authors: Morgan, Andrew J., Neal, Andrew, Ballard, Timothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Brief Report
Cognitive Psychology
Decision making
Information processing
Psychology
Tournaments & championships
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Summary:We investigated the effects of two types of competition, races and tournaments (as well as an individual challenge and a do-your-best condition), on two different aspects of performance: effort and strategy. In our experiment, 100 undergraduate participants completed a simple cognitive task under four experimental conditions (in a repeated-measures design) based on different types of competitions and challenges. We used the Linear Ballistic Accumulator to quantify the effects of competition on strategy and effort. The results reveal that competition produced changes in strategy rather than effort, and that trait competitiveness had minimal impact on how people responded to competition. This suggests individuals are more likely to adjust their strategy in competitions, and the uncertainty created by different competition types influences the direction of these strategy adjustments.
ISSN:1069-9384
1531-5320
DOI:10.3758/s13423-022-02213-x