Abstract:

A constant element of our modern environment is change. We experience continuous rapid evolution of technology that changes the way humans perform routine and complex tasks and the way people interact and collaborate. Our ability to quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments will influence our success in many naturalistic situations. Given constant evolution of regular situations, one would expect that people are tuned to adapt to change by maintaining awareness and learning to adjust to new forming situations—but are people truly able to detect change? And are we able to adapt to environmental change? In this talk I will present a selected group of behavioral studies, some in complex dynamic decision making tasks and others in simpler dynamic repeated choice tasks, the results of which reveal some basic principles of how individuals (and groups) may detect and adapt their behavior to changing conditions. These basic adaptation phenomena are explained by essential elements and procedures of human memory, formalized in instance-based learning models of decisions from experience. These basic adaptation principles could be used in turn, to help people make decisions that help them to remain successful after changes in dynamic situations.

Info:

Research Professor Cleotilde Gonzales
Founding Director of the DDMLab  
Research Professor of Decision Science, Social and Decision Sciences
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University