Topographic Analysis of Cognitive Load in Tacit Coordination Games Based on Electrophysiological Measurements

Tacit coordination games are coordination games in which communication between the players is not possible. Various studies have shown that people succeed in these games beyond what is predicted by classical game theory. This success is attributed to the identification of focal points (also known as Schelling points). Focal points are pronounced solutions based on salient features of the game that somehow attracts the players’ attention. Experiments with tacit coordination games show that some players manage to “see” the focal points and reason about the selections made by the co-player, while others fail to do so, and might turn to guessing. According to the Cognitive Hierarchy Theory (CHT), the task of coordinating, that is, reasoning about what the other player would choose is performed on cognitive levels greater than or equal to 1. In contrast, the task of just picking an answer, without an explicit need to coordinate is done at cognitive level 0. With that in mind, our study has two main purposes. First, to examine whether the same task that is defined each time at a different cognitive level (picking or coordination) causes a different psychological cognitive load in the participating players. Second, to examine the distribution of cognitive load across the scalp during coordination tasks.