Depth Of Reasoning Research Articles

Consistent Depth of Reasoning in Level-k Models

Level-k models often assume that individuals employ a fixed depth of reasoning across different games. We study this assumption by having subjects make choices in five classes of games chosen to identify inconsistent depth of reasoning. We demonstrate that depth of reasoning is pervasively inconsistent, changing both within and between classes of games. We show that this cannot easily be explained by factors such as subject confusion, changing beliefs about others’ depth of reasoning, stochastic choice, model misspecification, changing incentives, or low cognitive ability. We develop a simple model incorporating ambiguity aversion that predicts inconsistent depth of reasoning. (JEL C57, C90, D81, D83, D91)

Depth of reasoning in the 11–20 game differs between financial professionals and students. A lab-in-the-field experiment

We rely on Alaoui and Penta (2020)’s variant of the 11–20 game (Arad and Rubinstein, 2012), to elicit the depth of reasoning of financial professionals (FP) and students (ST). FP chose lower numbers in the 11–20 game than ST, but had similar CRT scores. We observe that ST with higher CRT scores tend to choose larger numbers. FPs’ chosen numbers are positively affected by their SVO while ST's chosen numbers are positively affected by their risk-aversion.

Interpret The Conversation of The Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John Heuristic Approach

The Gospel of John contains several individual conversations.The conversations included Nicodemus, a Samaritan woman, and a Man born blind. To interpret the content of the conversations, the author uses a Heuristic reasoning approach; the findings of the study show the benefits and depth of heuristic reasoning, especially the content of the conversation and its application in Christian education services.

Resident dictation of operative notes: a reimbursement comparison and mixed-methods analysis

PurposeSurgical documentation is crucial to ensure quality patient care and accurate coding and billing. Operative dictation also serves as a valuable educational opportunity for surgical trainees. However, resident dictations may not fully capture procedural details and complexities, resulting in missed revenue opportunities. On July 1, 2021, our university-based surgery department implemented a policy requiring attendings to dictate all operative reports. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate the financial impact of this policy and explore differences in resident and attending dictations.MethodsCore general surgery operations performed by the Department of Surgery between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2022 were identified from billing data. The surgeon, current procedural terminology (CPT) and modifier codes, and relative value units (RVUs) for each case were acquired. Surgeons not present for the entire study period or cases requiring multiple surgeons were excluded. Descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) non-parametric tests compared pre- and post-policy RVU distributions on overall charges and 18 key general surgery operations. Targeted thematic analysis was performed on operative reports pre- and post-policy to explore resident and attending differences.ResultsA total of 42 attendings performed 16,233 cases, billing 28,560 CPT codes (50.3% pre- vs. 49.7% post-policy). There was a small but statistically significant increase in RVU distribution post-policy, mean 20.2 pre- vs. 20.3 RVUs post-, $4372 pre- vs. $4418 per case post-, KS = 0.02 (p = 0.009). Specifically, higher RVU distributions were seen among attending-dictated cases for melanoma (p = 0.009), minimally invasive ventral hernia repair (VHR, p = 0.008), parathyroidectomy (p < 0.001), anorectal incision and drainage (p = 0.003) and anorectal exam under anesthesia (p = 0.029). Higher RVU distributions were noted among resident-dictated, attending-edited cases for partial colectomy (p = 0.043), and open VHR (p = 0.004). No differences were noted among the remaining operations (p > 0.05). Three major themes were noted from focused sampling of 112 operative reports: billable items, clinical/surgical reasoning, and technical details. Differences in billable items and clinical and surgical reasoning were the most influential on modifying clinical implications of operative notes. Themes and differences were consistent regardless of surgeon or specialty.ConclusionAdopting an attending-only operative dictation policy yielded a small increase in billable RVUs, predominantly from select operations. Gaps in coding-directed language and depth of clinical reasoning were noted in resident dictations. These findings reveal an educational opportunity that concomitantly optimizes patient care, resident education, and procedural revenue.

Editor’s Introduction to JPE Micro

Editor’s Introduction to <i>JPE Micro</i>

Computational underpinnings of partisan information processing biases and associations with depth of cognitive reasoning

Despite unprecedented access to information, partisans increasingly disagree about basic facts that are backed by data, posing a serious threat to a democracy that relies on finding common ground based on objective truths. We examine the underpinnings of this phenomenon using drift diffusion modeling (DDM). Partisans (N = 148) completed a sequential sampling task where they evaluated the honesty of Democrat or Republican politicians during a debate based on fact-check scores. We found that partisans required less and weaker evidence to correctly categorize the ingroup as more honest, and were more accurate on trials when the ingroup candidate was more honest, compared to the outgroup. DDM revealed that such tendencies arise from both a prior preference for categorizing the ingroup as more honest (i.e., biased starting point) and more precise accumulation of information favoring the ingroup candidate compared to the outgroup (i.e., biased drift rate). Moreover, individual differences in cognitive reasoning moderated task performance for the most devoted partisans and maintained divergent associations with the DDM parameters. This suggests that partisans may reach biased conclusions via different pathways depending on their depth of cognitive reasoning. These findings provide key insights into the mechanisms driving partisan divides in polarized environments, and can inform interventions that reduce impasse and conflict.

Electrophysiological Features to Aid in the Construction of Predictive Models of Human-Agent Collaboration in Smart Environments.

Achieving successful human–agent collaboration in the context of smart environments requires the modeling of human behavior for predicting people’s decisions. The goal of the current study was to utilize the TBR and the Alpha band as electrophysiological features that will discriminate between different tasks, each associated with a different depth of reasoning. To that end, we monitored the modulations of the TBR and Alpha, while participants were engaged in performing two cognitive tasks: picking and coordination. In the picking condition (low depth of processing), participants were requested to freely choose a single word out of a string of four words. In the coordination condition (high depth of processing), participants were asked to try and select the same word as an unknown partner that was assigned to them. We performed two types of analyses, one that considers the time factor (i.e., observing dynamic changes across trials) and the other that does not. When the temporal factor was not considered, only Beta was sensitive to the difference between picking and coordination. However, when the temporal factor was included, a transition occurred between cognitive effort and fatigue in the middle stage of the experiment. These results highlight the importance of monitoring the electrophysiological indices, as different factors such as fatigue might affect the instantaneous relative weight of intuitive and deliberate modes of reasoning. Thus, monitoring the response of the human–agent across time in human–agent interactions might turn out to be crucial for smooth coordination in the context of human–computer interaction.

Counting on my vote not counting: Expressive voting in committees

How do voting institutions affect incentives of committees to vote expressively? We model a committee that chooses whether to approve a proposal that some members may consider ethical. Members who vote for the proposal receive expressive utility, and all members pay a cost if the proposal is accepted. Committee members may have different depths of reasoning. Under certain sufficient conditions, the model predicts that features that reduce the probability of a member being pivotal – namely, larger committee size, or a more restrictive voting rule – raise the share of votes in favour of the proposal. A laboratory experiment with a charitable donation framing presents evidence in line with these results. Our structural estimation recovers the distributions of altruistic and expressive preferences, as well as of depth of reasoning, across individuals.

Bases of Hindu Culture: Philosophical Schools and Their Contribution to World Spirituality

Hindu culture is one of the oldest and most complete philosophical structures with spiritualist purpose formulated in the history of mankind. Recognized for its depth, complexity and breadth of reasoning, which virtuously associates the scientific root with spiritual subjects in explanations about manifestation and divine reality. This article, whose general objective is to present the bases on which this philosophical-cultural system, and its structure of thought, was based, and, for specific objectives, to demonstrate how it contributed to the formulation of the main religions and philosophies of the world, which aim to help man to re-find his true nature. As a methodology, a bibliographic research was carried out that covered both Western authors, researchers of culture and philosophy of the East, as well as Eastern authors, renowned for their explanation about the studies of the Hindu tradition. It was found that the works that explain the influence of the ancient structure of eastern philosophical and scientific thought, especially the Hindu tradition, present the depth and dedication that this theme requires and evidences the need for continuity and expansion of the study carried out.

Uncertain rationality, depth of reasoning and robustness in games with incomplete information

Predictions under common knowledge of payoffs may differ from those under arbitrarily, but finitely, many orders of mutual knowledge; Rubinstein's (1989) Email game is a seminal example. Weinstein and Yildiz (2007) showed that the discontinuity in the example generalizes: for all types with multiple rationalizable (ICR) actions, there exist similar types with unique rationalizable action. This paper studies how a wide class of departures from common belief in rationality impact Weinstein and Yildiz's discontinuity. We weaken ICR to ICR λ , where λ is a sequence whose term λ n is the probability players attach to ( n − 1)th‐order belief in rationality. We find that Weinstein and Yildiz's discontinuity remains when λ n is above an appropriate threshold for all n, but fails when λ n converges to 0. That is, if players' confidence in mutual rationality persists at high orders, the discontinuity persists, but if confidence vanishes at high orders, the discontinuity vanishes.

Robust multiplicity with (transfinitely) vanishing naiveté

We extend significantly a result in Heifetz and Kets (Theor Econ 18:415–465, 2018) for Carlsson and van Damme’s (Econometrica 61:989–1018, 1993) global games by which even slight deviations from common belief in infinite depth of reasoning restore the robustness of rationalizable actions multiplicity, in contrast with the intriguing findings of Weinstein and Yildiz (Econometrica 75:365–400, 2007) under an idealized lack of such deviations. Here we show that multiplicity of rationalizable actions is a robust phenomenon even if finite depth of reasoning is an ‘extremely remote rumor’, where someone suspects that someone suspects (...) that somebody might have a finite depth of reasoning, and where the dots range over a transfinite range.

Two Ancient Chinese Antinomies: The Hengxian and Early Cosmology

The cosmology elaborated in the Hengxian is eclectic. Its most salient point is the notion of self–generation which most probably stems from some other independent source no longer extant today. Apart from the cosmology of self–generation, there existed three other types of cosmology in ancient China: ‘nonpresence to presence’ cosmology, numerological cosmology, and mythological cosmology. Interestingly, the pursuit of the cosmological problematic led ancient Chinese thought to two antinomies. The first one revolved around the issue of whether the world and the myriad things have a beginning. The latter antinomy regarded the question of whether the generation and transformation of the world and the myriad things is caused by ‘some agency’ or whether there is ‘no maker’ involved in the cosmological process. These two antinomies have their close counterparts in two of the four antinomies introduced by Immanuel Kant, which attests to the depth of philosophical reasoning in ancient China.

Robust multiplicity with a grain of naiveté

In an important paper, Weinstein and Yildiz (2007) show that if players have an innite depth of reasoning and this is commonly believed, types generically have a unique rationalizable action in games that satisfy a richness condition. We show that this result does not extend to environments where players may have a

Depth of Reasoning and Information Revelation: An Experiment on the Distribution of k-Levels

The level-[Formula: see text] model is a workhorse in behavioral game theory. For comparisons across experiments and predictions in future studies, it is crucial to assess the empirical distribution of [Formula: see text]-levels. We present a revelation game suitable for this purpose. In a labor market context, workers can choose to reveal their productivity at a cost, and players’ strategies reveal their level of reasoning in terms of a [Formula: see text]-level. We find that the most frequently observed reasoning levels are [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In our game roughly 30% of the players are [Formula: see text] and 25% are [Formula: see text]. We compare our results to other experiments that identify level-[Formula: see text] distribution, foremost to the money request (or 11–20) game. Despite various differences to the 11–20 game, our revelation game suggests a very similar distribution of level-[Formula: see text] types.

ALFREDO FERRARIN: THE POWERS OF PURE REASON. KANT AND THE IDEA OF COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2015, 352 PP.

“Like rainbows over an abyss”2. By quoting Nietzsche’s fragments, Alfredo Ferrarin recalls, in the last chapter of his book, the role of the power of judgment in ensuring the transition from the domain of nature to that of morals (273). The Powers of Pure Reason. Kant and the Idea of Cosmic Philosophy is a rich, complex and very articulated book, somehow revolutionary in Kant studies thanks to its seemingly simple claim: Kant’s philosophy has to be considered as “the promotion of reason’s ends”, rather than as “logical self-consistency” or “the instrument of mankind’s progress” (292). In other words, Alfredo Ferrarin advocates a reading of Kant’s entire system in the light of a unitary notion of reason, to be further declined according to its different aims. Based on this interpretation, Kant’s inconsistencies and even contradictions are neither nullified nor blamed, but they are interpreted as necessary parts of a complex and dynamical whole amounting to the power of reason. Consequently, all those philosophical issues threatening the unity of reason are turned by this book into a tribute to Kant’s depth of reasoning (2).

Do Student Athletes Play More Rationally and Strategically in Experimental Games? Evidence from Class Room Experiments

This study examines the depth of strategic reasoning among students by using classroom experiments. Several studies have shown that professional sports players compete rationally and game theoretically in their fields. In contrast, numerous laboratory studies have shown that the depth of strategic reasoning in regular students is limited, despite monetary incentives. Which factors affect the reasoning ability of sports players? One way to examine the relationship between sports players and their rationality is the reasoning among student athletes before they become professionals. Thus, we conducted comparative classroom experiments for student athletes and regular students. The experimental results indicated that the student athletes were significantly more rational than regular students.

Gender Differences and Stereotypes in Strategic Thinking

Recent literature has emphasized that individuals display varying levels of strategic reasoning. This paper presents ten years worth of experimental data from two countries exploring the existence and endogeneity o f gender differences in strategic sophistication. We report results from two experime ntal studies employing the beauty contest game, one from the classroom and one from the laboratory. We observe robust and signi…cant gender differences in strategic soph istication in favour of men in zero- stake situations. These differences disappear when a monetary prize is awarded. We also …find that depth of strategic reasoning varies with gender priming. Females display signi…cantly higher levels of strategic sop histication than males when gender is made salient. This effect of gender priming is driv en by females who believe women are superior in the game.

Level-K Mechanism Design

Models of choice where agents see others as less sophisticated than themselves have significantly different, sometimes more accurate, predictions in games than does Nash equilibrium. When it comes to mechanism design, however, they turn out to have surprisingly similar implications. This paper provides tight necessary and sufficient conditions for implementation with bounded depth of reasoning, discussing the role and implications of different behavioral anchors. The central condition slightly strengthens standard incentive constraints, and we term it strict-if-responsive Bayesian incentive compatibility (SIRBIC).

Endogenous Depth of Reasoning

We introduce a model of strategic thinking in games of initial response. Unlike standard models of strategic thinking, in this framework the player’s ‘depth of reasoning’ is endogenously determined, and it can be disentangled from his beliefs over his opponent’s cognitive bound. In our approach, individuals act as if they follow a cost-benet analysis. The depth of reasoning is a function of the player’s cognitive abilities and his payos. The costs are exogenous and represent the game theoretical sophistication of the player; the benet instead is related to the game payos. Behavior is in turn determined by the individual’s depth of reasoning and his beliefs about the reasoning process of the opponent. Thus, in our framework, payos not only aect individual choices in the traditional sense, but they also shape the cognitive process itself. Our model delivers testable implications on players’ chosen actions as incentives and opponents change. We then test the model’s predictions with an experiment. We administer dierent treatments that vary beliefs over payos and opponents, as well as beliefs over opponents’ beliefs. The results of this experiment, which are not accounted for by current models of reasoning in games, strongly support our theory. We also show that the predictions of our model are highly consistent, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with well-known unresolved empirical puzzles. Our approach therefore serves as a novel, unifying framework of strategic thinking that allows for predictions across games.

Depth of reasoning and higher order beliefs

As demonstrated by the email game of Rubinstein (1989), the predictions of the standard equilibrium models of game theory are sensitive to assumptions about the fine details of the higher order beliefs. This paper shows that models of bounded depth of reasoning based on level-k thinking or cognitive hierarchy make predictions that are independent of the tail assumptions on the higher order beliefs. The framework developed here provides a language that makes it possible to identify general conditions on depth of reasoning, instead of committing to a particular model such as level-k thinking or cognitive hierarchy.