Assistant Professor of Telecommunication Yu-Hao Lee and colleagues from Oklahoma University and University of California-Santa Barbara, have been awarded $549,061 from National Science Foundation Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program.

The two-year project will design and test a digital game to overcome reactance in training and teach professionals (especially law officials) how to overcome bias and problematic heuristics in deception detection. OU will be in charge of developing the game and Professor Lee will be involved in the design process and developing scales in year one. In year two, the team will conduct experiments at UF and at UCSB.

Abstract

Teaching Bias Mitigation through Training Games with Application in Credibility Attribution

The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that will help envision the next generation of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. Cyberlearning Exploration (EXP) Projects explore the viability of new kinds of learning technologies by designing and building new kinds of learning technologies and studying their possibilities for fostering learning and challenges to using them effectively. This project will develop and study an interactive game entitled VERITAS for making players aware of their cognitive bias in decision making and attempting to mitigate its effects. The game focuses on detecting deception and many of the research participants are from law enforcement.

Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts acquired from existing beliefs and past experiences. Heuristics and cognitive biases affect virtually every judgment being made in daily life. Humans often perform no better than chance when attempting to distinguish truths from deception and tend to be over-confident in their ability to detect deception. They are rarely aware of their own biases and are resistant to traditional training efforts aimed at changing decision-making processes. There are few studies verifying our ability to mitigate cognitive biases.

This project will explore using game-based learning to make people aware of cognitive biases and reduce their reliance on simple heuristics. The project asserts that the experiential environment afforded by game-based learning should be particularly effective at facilitating the introspection necessary for learners to actively experiment with more systematic decision-making techniques. It will experimentally test the effectiveness of a game-based training program targeting law enforcement officials. This research integrates a theory-driven design using multiple research methods, including observation of behavior during game play, surveys, interviewing, and experimentation. This project will contribute to the understanding of how cognitive biases function within the context of deception detection and will advance understanding of how a game may be better suited than traditional learning methods at mitigating cognitive biases. Results will be disseminated through convention exhibitions and journal publications and the team plans to showcase this game at professional conferences with game developers, law enforcement officials, and the general public.

Posted: August 20, 2015
Category: College News, Research News
Tagged as: National Science Foundation, Yu-Hao Lee