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

University of California at San Diego, Department of Economics Working Paper No. 98-22

96 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 1999

See all articles by Miguel Costa-Gomes

Miguel Costa-Gomes

University of Edinburgh - School of Economics

Vincent P. Crawford

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics; University of Oxford - Department of Economics

Bruno Broseta

Organismo Público Valenciano de Investigación (OPVI)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 1998

Abstract

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. Subjects played normal-form games with various patterns of iterated dominance and unique pure-strategy equilibria without dominance, using a computer interface that allowed them to look up hidden payoffs as often as desired, one at a time, while recording their look-up sequences. Monitoring subjects' information searches along with their decisions allows us more precisely to identify their decision rules, and subjects' deviations from the search patterns suggested by equilibrium analysis help to predict their deviations from equilibrium decisions.

JEL Classification: C72, C92, C51

Suggested Citation

Costa-Gomes, Miguel and Crawford, Vincent P. and Broseta, Bruno, Cognition and Behavior in Normal-Form Games: An Experimental Study (September 1998). University of California at San Diego, Department of Economics Working Paper No. 98-22, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=145793 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.145793

Miguel Costa-Gomes

University of Edinburgh - School of Economics ( email )

31 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh, EH8 9JT
United Kingdom

Vincent P. Crawford (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics ( email )

Department of Economics
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
United States
302-729-3230 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~v2crawford/

University of Oxford - Department of Economics ( email )

All Souls College
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AL
United Kingdom
+44-1865-279339 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~v2crawford/

Bruno Broseta

Organismo Público Valenciano de Investigación (OPVI) ( email )

Instituto de la Empresa Familiar
c/Salamanca 68
46005 Valencia
Spain

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