Cognitive adaptation and its consequences: a test of cognitive continuum theory

✍ Scribed by Philip T. Dunwoody; Eric Haarbauer; Robert P. Mahan; Christopher Marino; Chu-Chun Tang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 217 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3257
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0771(200001/03)13:1<35::aid-bdm339>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT) is an adaptive theory of human judgement and posits a continuum of cognitive modes anchored by intuition and analysis. The theory speci®es surface and depth task characteristics that are likely to induce cognitive modes at dierent points along the cognitive continuum. The current study manipulated both the surface (information representation) and depth (task structure) characteristics of a multiple-cue integration threat assessment task. The surface manipulation in¯uenced cognitive mode in the predicted direction with an iconic information display inducing a more intuitive mode than a numeric information display. The depth manipulation in¯uenced cognitive mode in a pattern not predicted by CCT. Results indicate this dierence was due to a combination of task complexity and participant satisfacing. As predicted, analysis produced a more leptokurtic error distribution than intuition. Task achievement was a function of the extent to which participants demonstrated an analytic cognitive mode index, and not a function of correspondence, as predicted. This dierence was likely due to the quantitative nature of the task manipulations.