Neth, H., Sims, C. R., Veksler, V. D., & Gray, W. D. (2004). You can't play straight TRACS and win: Memory updates in a dynamic task environment. In K. D. Forbus, D. Gentner & T. Regier (Eds.), 26th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci2004. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publisher..
To investigate people’s ability to update memory in a dynamic task environment
we use the experimental card game TRACS™ (Burns, 2001). In many card
games card counting is a component of optimal performance. However, for TRACS,
Burns (2002a) reported that players exhibited a baseline bias: rather than
basing their choices on the actual number of cards remaining in the deck, they
chose cards based on the initial composition of the deck. Both a task analysis
and computer simulation show that a perfectly executed memory update strategy
has minimal value in the original game, suggesting that a baseline strategy
is a rational adaptation to the demands of the original game. We then redesign
the game to maximize the difference in performance between baseline and update
strategies. An empirical study with the new game shows that players perform
much better than could be achieved by a baseline strategy. Hence, we conclude
that people will adopt a memory update strategy when the benefits outweigh
the costs.