The Morra Game as a Naturalistic Test Bed for Investigating Automatic and Voluntary Processes in Random Sequence...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Morra is an ancient hand game involving prediction and number guessing.
• Expert players outperform non-experts, hinting at subconscious strategies.
• Investigating attentive control in sequence generation and proceduralization of random number generation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the role of attentive control in generating item sequences.
• To assess the proceduralization of random number generation (RNG).
• To examine Morra as a naturalistic setting for studying cognitive strategies.

Main Methods:

• Recorded number sequences from expert Morra players and undergraduate students.
• Compared randomness scores in Morra games and a separate random number generation task (RNGT).
• Collected survey data on conscious recall of strategies.

Main Results:

• Expert Morra players showed significantly higher randomness scores in Morra games compared to non-experts.
• No significant difference in randomness scores between experts and non-experts during the RNGT.
• Expert players reported poor conscious recall of their in-game strategies.

Conclusions:

• The ability to generate random sequences can be proceduralized and automated.
• Attentive control is not always necessary for effective random number generation.
• Findings support dual processing theories of automatic vs. controlled cognitive processes.