Daniel Decaro - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Daniel Decaro
Judgment and Decision Making
Work on procedural utility suggests that decision makers derive more value from outcomes earned w... more Work on procedural utility suggests that decision makers derive more value from outcomes earned with freedom of choice. We experimentally tested tradeoffs between procedural and outcome utility, examining financial losses as an important boundary condition. Participants completed a simulated consumer sales task (Exp. 1) or card task (Exp. 2) with or without choice. Participants reported their satisfaction with monetary outcomes. When given choice, participants reported greater self-determination. Participants also reported higher outcome satisfaction, but only for gains. Choice did not influence satisfaction for losses. In Experiment 2, Participants also preferred choice when selecting between financial gains. However, when choice was costly (large disparity in pay) or posed losses, most participants sacrificed choice for better payoffs. Results are consistent with a cognitive model in which participants shift their attention from procedural utilities to financial outcomes when face...
Judgment and Decision Making
We used psychological methods to investigate how two prominent interventions, participatory decis... more We used psychological methods to investigate how two prominent interventions, participatory decision making and enforcement, influence voluntary cooperation in a common-pool resource dilemma. Groups (N=40) harvested resources from a shared resource pool. Individuals in the Voted-Enforce condition voted on conservation rules and could use economic sanctions to enforce them. In other conditions, individuals could not vote (Imposed-Enforce condition), lacked enforcement (Voted condition), or both (Imposed condition). Cooperation was strongest in the Voted-Enforce condition (Phase 2). Moreover, these groups continued to cooperate voluntarily after enforcement was removed later in the experiment. Cooperation was weakest in the Imposed-Enforce condition and degraded after enforcement ceased. Thus, enforcement improved voluntary cooperation only when individuals voted. Perceptions of procedural justice, self-determination, and security were highest in the Voted-Enforced condition. These fa...
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
An agent-based model is presented that aims to capture the involvement of inequality and trust in... more An agent-based model is presented that aims to capture the involvement of inequality and trust in collective action in a classic commons dilemma before, during, and after communication. The model assumptions are based on the behavioral theory of collective action of Elinor Ostrom and the 'humanistic rational choice theory'. The commons dilemma is represented as a spatially explicit renewable resource. Agent's trust in others has an impact on the harvesting of shared resources, and trust is inŕuenced by observed harvesting behavior and cheap talk. We calibrated the model using data from a prior set of lab experiments on inequality, trust, and communication. The best őt to the data consists of a population with a small share of altruistic and selősh agents and a majority of conditional cooperative agents sensitive to inequality and who would cooperate if others did. Communication increased trust explaining the better group performance when communication was introduced. The modeling results complement prior communication research and clarify the dynamics of reciprocal cooperation commonly observed in robust resource governance systems.
PLOS ONE
Individuals typically prefer the freedom to make their own decisions. Yet, people often trade the... more Individuals typically prefer the freedom to make their own decisions. Yet, people often trade their own decision control (procedural utility) to gain economic security (outcome utility). Decision science has not reconciled these observations. We examined how decision-makers’ efficacy and security perceptions influence when, why, and how individuals exchange procedural and outcome utility. Undergraduate adults (N= 77;Mage= 19.45 years; 73% female; 62% Caucasian, 13% African American) were recruited from the psychology participant pool at a midwestern U.S. metropolitan university. Participants made financial decisions in easy and hard versions of a paid card task resembling a standard gambling task, with a learning component. During half the trials, they made decisions with a No-Choice Manager who controlled their decisions, versus a Choice Manager who granted decision control. The hard task was designed to be too difficult for most participants, undermining their efficacy and securit...
![Research paper thumbnail of [virtualcommons/foraging] Treatment 2 release](https://a.academia-assets.com/images/blank-paper.jpg)
](Improved chat + system message user interface for Experiment 2.
Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance, 2018
A decision science blind to decision procedures would be ”unfair”: The effect of decision process... more A decision science blind to decision procedures would be ”unfair”: The effect of decision process on decision-outcome satisfaction and subsequent choice in a performance environment Daniel DeCaro Miami University (MU) Joseph Johnson Mimia Univeristy (MU) Abstract: Contemporary models of decision making assume individuals evaluate options solely in terms of their ex- pected outcomes. However, recent research indicates that in institutional settings decision makers are also concerned with the procedural fairness of the decision process that generates those outcomes, such as whether decision makers were granted democratic inclusion in the decision-making process itself. We provide a much-needed quantification of the value decision makers place on inclusive decision procedures, showing (a) the pattern by which decision proce- dures alter individuals’ perceptions of otherwise identical outcomes, spanning losses and gains of differing quantity and quality (e.g., failure/success) and (b) t...
This codebook provides concepts and methodologies for coding and quantifying the content and func... more This codebook provides concepts and methodologies for coding and quantifying the content and function of communication in group social dilemma experiments, specifically with a social and ecological component (e.g., common pool resource dilemma). The content that is coded pertains to such categories as small talk, humor, information exchange (e.g., ecological, social, institutional), enforcement (e.g., praise, warnings, threats), decision making (e.g., proposals, choosing). Functional categories pertain to key functions needed for group members to govern the dilemma: e.g., develop agreements, make group decisions (e.g., democratic decision making), resolve conflicts, and enforce compliance. This codebook provides guidance for metrics to associate coded communication content and function to observed cooperation.
Ecology and Society, 2018
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2018
STEM undergraduate classrooms are increasingly adopting instructional methods to enhance student ... more STEM undergraduate classrooms are increasingly adopting instructional methods to enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes. For example, in exploratory learning, students explore novel problems before they are taught the underlying concepts and procedures. The current studies examined the benefits of exploratory learning in undergraduate physics instruction. In Studies 1 and 2, students worked collaboratively in groups to complete a learning activity before lecture (explore-first condition) or after (instruct-first condition). The two studies were conducted in different semesters, with different physics courses and instructors of record. Students' conceptual understanding and procedural knowledge (problem-solving accuracy) were assessed using an instructor-created quiz. Performance on the learning activity indicated that students in the explore-first condition struggled as much as (Study 2) or more (Study 1) than students in the instruct-first condition. However, after the learning activity, students in the explore-first condition exhibited better conceptual understanding and equal procedural knowledge, compared to students in the instruct-first condition. In addition, self-reported interest and enjoyment was either equal (Study 1) or greater (Study 2) in the explore-first condition. Study 3 tested the effects of exploring alone versus in a collaborative group. Learning outcomes were equal across conditions, suggesting that there is no added benefit of exploring collaboratively compared to individually. However, interest and enjoyment were higher when students explored collaboratively, which may have long-term educational benefits. Exploratory learning, with or without collaboration, offers a useful method to improve student engagement and performance in essential undergraduate STEM courses. Keywords exploratory learning; problem solving; interest and enjoyment; STEM; undergraduate Highlights Undergraduate physics students solved problems before or after instruction. Exploring problems first led to equal procedural and higher conceptual knowledge. Exploring problems first led to equal or higher interest and enjoyment. Exploring collaboratively versus individually increased interest and enjoyment but not learning.
Ecology and Society, 2017
Ecology and Society, 2017
The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collecti... more The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governmental action beyond that currently found in the heavily administrative governments of many democracies. Nevertheless, over time, law itself has proven highly adaptive in western systems of government, evolving to address and even facilitate the emergence of new social norms (such as the rights of women and minorities) or to provide remedies for emerging problems (such as pollution). Thus, there is no question that law can adapt, evolve, and be reformed to make room for adaptive governance. In doing this, not only may barriers be removed, but law may be adjusted to facilitate adaptive governance and to aid in institutionalizing new and emerging approaches to governance. The key is to do so in a way that also enhances legitimacy, accountability, and justice, or else such reforms will never be adopted by democratic societies, or if adopted, will destabilize those societies. By identifying those aspects of the frameworks for adaptive governance reviewed in the introduction to this special feature relevant to the legal system, we present guidelines for evaluating the role of law in environmental governance to identify the ways in which law can be used, adapted, and reformed to facilitate adaptive governance and to do so in a way that enhances the legitimacy of governmental action.
Ecology and Society, 2017
Ecology and Society, 2017
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
assessment of the Rio Chama basin, a major upper tributary of the Rio Grande basin). 10. Nemec et... more assessment of the Rio Chama basin, a major upper tributary of the Rio Grande basin). 10. Nemec et al., supra note 6. 2014] NREL EDITION 31 competing uses of water under conditions of uncertainty and disturbance, particularly the effects of climate change like sustained or unprecedented drought. These conditions and disturbances pose threats to the flow regimes, aquatic habitats, and structural integrity of the basins as both ecosystems and important societal organizing units in western communities and economies. 12 However, other types of river basins also need adaptive water governance systems to enhance and sustain ecosystem and social-system resilience to climate change and other uncertainties and disturbance. These include smaller basins, Eastern basins, and basins influenced more by pollution, runoff (urban, suburban, and agricultural), and flooding than by scarcity and drought. 13 The Anacostia River Basin, which stretches from rural and suburban Maryland through the heavily urbanized District of Columbia, has all of these characteristics. When we started to analyze the resilience of the Anacostia River Basin, we initially used the Resilience Alliance's resilience assessment workbooks for scientists and practitioners. 14 However, our research soon revealed the strong role of institutions, which received too little systematic attention in the workbooks, and we shifted our methods of analysis to an institutional-historical analysis. Institutions are "the prescriptions that humans use to organize all forms of repetitive and structured interactions. .. at all scales." 15 Institutions are composed of rules, norms, and cultural-cognitive beliefs, all of which shape social action. 16 Institutions include law and legal regimes, formal governance systems and policies, and informal or decentralized systems of governance, including collaborative management of common resources, community norms, loose networks for collective action, and the like. 17 Institutions can be analyzed at macro levels of large-scale struc-11.
Progress in Brain Research, 2009
Until recently, the constraints imposed on decision makers by the human physical conditionsituate... more Until recently, the constraints imposed on decision makers by the human physical conditionsituated both as a physical agent and within physical space-have played only an incidental, if not entirely inconsequential, role in conceptualizations of human decision making. The act of deciding has been positioned as the quintessence of traditional decision theory, while actual enactment of the decided action within physical space by a corporal actor, with all that this entails, has been regarded as the obvious and, therefore, scientifically uninteresting result of having made up one's mind (cf. Bagozzi et al., 2003). However, recent discoveries made in the area of embodied cognition regarding the involvement of fundamentally motoric representations in long-presumed ''cognitive'' systems (Wilson, 2002) potentially turned conventional wisdom upside-down. In this chapter, we go beyond prominent theories of action selection and decision making to rethink the link between mind and body as it pertains to the relatively novel frontier of embodied decision making. In particular, we reconceptualize what it means to evaluate one's options in light of recent advancements in embodied cognition, motor control, and dynamic decision making. In the process, we provide a much needed account of the primary theoretical issues that any good account would seem to be impelled to address. Perhaps the greatest contribution provided by the present chapter is an organizing framework that we hope will guide future research to the eventual answer to what it means to be an embodied decision maker.
Learning and Individual Differences, 2015
Ecology and Society, 2013
Judgment and Decision Making
Work on procedural utility suggests that decision makers derive more value from outcomes earned w... more Work on procedural utility suggests that decision makers derive more value from outcomes earned with freedom of choice. We experimentally tested tradeoffs between procedural and outcome utility, examining financial losses as an important boundary condition. Participants completed a simulated consumer sales task (Exp. 1) or card task (Exp. 2) with or without choice. Participants reported their satisfaction with monetary outcomes. When given choice, participants reported greater self-determination. Participants also reported higher outcome satisfaction, but only for gains. Choice did not influence satisfaction for losses. In Experiment 2, Participants also preferred choice when selecting between financial gains. However, when choice was costly (large disparity in pay) or posed losses, most participants sacrificed choice for better payoffs. Results are consistent with a cognitive model in which participants shift their attention from procedural utilities to financial outcomes when face...
Judgment and Decision Making
We used psychological methods to investigate how two prominent interventions, participatory decis... more We used psychological methods to investigate how two prominent interventions, participatory decision making and enforcement, influence voluntary cooperation in a common-pool resource dilemma. Groups (N=40) harvested resources from a shared resource pool. Individuals in the Voted-Enforce condition voted on conservation rules and could use economic sanctions to enforce them. In other conditions, individuals could not vote (Imposed-Enforce condition), lacked enforcement (Voted condition), or both (Imposed condition). Cooperation was strongest in the Voted-Enforce condition (Phase 2). Moreover, these groups continued to cooperate voluntarily after enforcement was removed later in the experiment. Cooperation was weakest in the Imposed-Enforce condition and degraded after enforcement ceased. Thus, enforcement improved voluntary cooperation only when individuals voted. Perceptions of procedural justice, self-determination, and security were highest in the Voted-Enforced condition. These fa...
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
An agent-based model is presented that aims to capture the involvement of inequality and trust in... more An agent-based model is presented that aims to capture the involvement of inequality and trust in collective action in a classic commons dilemma before, during, and after communication. The model assumptions are based on the behavioral theory of collective action of Elinor Ostrom and the 'humanistic rational choice theory'. The commons dilemma is represented as a spatially explicit renewable resource. Agent's trust in others has an impact on the harvesting of shared resources, and trust is inŕuenced by observed harvesting behavior and cheap talk. We calibrated the model using data from a prior set of lab experiments on inequality, trust, and communication. The best őt to the data consists of a population with a small share of altruistic and selősh agents and a majority of conditional cooperative agents sensitive to inequality and who would cooperate if others did. Communication increased trust explaining the better group performance when communication was introduced. The modeling results complement prior communication research and clarify the dynamics of reciprocal cooperation commonly observed in robust resource governance systems.
PLOS ONE
Individuals typically prefer the freedom to make their own decisions. Yet, people often trade the... more Individuals typically prefer the freedom to make their own decisions. Yet, people often trade their own decision control (procedural utility) to gain economic security (outcome utility). Decision science has not reconciled these observations. We examined how decision-makers’ efficacy and security perceptions influence when, why, and how individuals exchange procedural and outcome utility. Undergraduate adults (N= 77;Mage= 19.45 years; 73% female; 62% Caucasian, 13% African American) were recruited from the psychology participant pool at a midwestern U.S. metropolitan university. Participants made financial decisions in easy and hard versions of a paid card task resembling a standard gambling task, with a learning component. During half the trials, they made decisions with a No-Choice Manager who controlled their decisions, versus a Choice Manager who granted decision control. The hard task was designed to be too difficult for most participants, undermining their efficacy and securit...
Improved chat + system message user interface for Experiment 2.
Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance, 2018
A decision science blind to decision procedures would be ”unfair”: The effect of decision process... more A decision science blind to decision procedures would be ”unfair”: The effect of decision process on decision-outcome satisfaction and subsequent choice in a performance environment Daniel DeCaro Miami University (MU) Joseph Johnson Mimia Univeristy (MU) Abstract: Contemporary models of decision making assume individuals evaluate options solely in terms of their ex- pected outcomes. However, recent research indicates that in institutional settings decision makers are also concerned with the procedural fairness of the decision process that generates those outcomes, such as whether decision makers were granted democratic inclusion in the decision-making process itself. We provide a much-needed quantification of the value decision makers place on inclusive decision procedures, showing (a) the pattern by which decision proce- dures alter individuals’ perceptions of otherwise identical outcomes, spanning losses and gains of differing quantity and quality (e.g., failure/success) and (b) t...
This codebook provides concepts and methodologies for coding and quantifying the content and func... more This codebook provides concepts and methodologies for coding and quantifying the content and function of communication in group social dilemma experiments, specifically with a social and ecological component (e.g., common pool resource dilemma). The content that is coded pertains to such categories as small talk, humor, information exchange (e.g., ecological, social, institutional), enforcement (e.g., praise, warnings, threats), decision making (e.g., proposals, choosing). Functional categories pertain to key functions needed for group members to govern the dilemma: e.g., develop agreements, make group decisions (e.g., democratic decision making), resolve conflicts, and enforce compliance. This codebook provides guidance for metrics to associate coded communication content and function to observed cooperation.
Ecology and Society, 2018
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2018
STEM undergraduate classrooms are increasingly adopting instructional methods to enhance student ... more STEM undergraduate classrooms are increasingly adopting instructional methods to enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes. For example, in exploratory learning, students explore novel problems before they are taught the underlying concepts and procedures. The current studies examined the benefits of exploratory learning in undergraduate physics instruction. In Studies 1 and 2, students worked collaboratively in groups to complete a learning activity before lecture (explore-first condition) or after (instruct-first condition). The two studies were conducted in different semesters, with different physics courses and instructors of record. Students' conceptual understanding and procedural knowledge (problem-solving accuracy) were assessed using an instructor-created quiz. Performance on the learning activity indicated that students in the explore-first condition struggled as much as (Study 2) or more (Study 1) than students in the instruct-first condition. However, after the learning activity, students in the explore-first condition exhibited better conceptual understanding and equal procedural knowledge, compared to students in the instruct-first condition. In addition, self-reported interest and enjoyment was either equal (Study 1) or greater (Study 2) in the explore-first condition. Study 3 tested the effects of exploring alone versus in a collaborative group. Learning outcomes were equal across conditions, suggesting that there is no added benefit of exploring collaboratively compared to individually. However, interest and enjoyment were higher when students explored collaboratively, which may have long-term educational benefits. Exploratory learning, with or without collaboration, offers a useful method to improve student engagement and performance in essential undergraduate STEM courses. Keywords exploratory learning; problem solving; interest and enjoyment; STEM; undergraduate Highlights Undergraduate physics students solved problems before or after instruction. Exploring problems first led to equal procedural and higher conceptual knowledge. Exploring problems first led to equal or higher interest and enjoyment. Exploring collaboratively versus individually increased interest and enjoyment but not learning.
Ecology and Society, 2017
Ecology and Society, 2017
The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collecti... more The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governmental action beyond that currently found in the heavily administrative governments of many democracies. Nevertheless, over time, law itself has proven highly adaptive in western systems of government, evolving to address and even facilitate the emergence of new social norms (such as the rights of women and minorities) or to provide remedies for emerging problems (such as pollution). Thus, there is no question that law can adapt, evolve, and be reformed to make room for adaptive governance. In doing this, not only may barriers be removed, but law may be adjusted to facilitate adaptive governance and to aid in institutionalizing new and emerging approaches to governance. The key is to do so in a way that also enhances legitimacy, accountability, and justice, or else such reforms will never be adopted by democratic societies, or if adopted, will destabilize those societies. By identifying those aspects of the frameworks for adaptive governance reviewed in the introduction to this special feature relevant to the legal system, we present guidelines for evaluating the role of law in environmental governance to identify the ways in which law can be used, adapted, and reformed to facilitate adaptive governance and to do so in a way that enhances the legitimacy of governmental action.
Ecology and Society, 2017
Ecology and Society, 2017
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
assessment of the Rio Chama basin, a major upper tributary of the Rio Grande basin). 10. Nemec et... more assessment of the Rio Chama basin, a major upper tributary of the Rio Grande basin). 10. Nemec et al., supra note 6. 2014] NREL EDITION 31 competing uses of water under conditions of uncertainty and disturbance, particularly the effects of climate change like sustained or unprecedented drought. These conditions and disturbances pose threats to the flow regimes, aquatic habitats, and structural integrity of the basins as both ecosystems and important societal organizing units in western communities and economies. 12 However, other types of river basins also need adaptive water governance systems to enhance and sustain ecosystem and social-system resilience to climate change and other uncertainties and disturbance. These include smaller basins, Eastern basins, and basins influenced more by pollution, runoff (urban, suburban, and agricultural), and flooding than by scarcity and drought. 13 The Anacostia River Basin, which stretches from rural and suburban Maryland through the heavily urbanized District of Columbia, has all of these characteristics. When we started to analyze the resilience of the Anacostia River Basin, we initially used the Resilience Alliance's resilience assessment workbooks for scientists and practitioners. 14 However, our research soon revealed the strong role of institutions, which received too little systematic attention in the workbooks, and we shifted our methods of analysis to an institutional-historical analysis. Institutions are "the prescriptions that humans use to organize all forms of repetitive and structured interactions. .. at all scales." 15 Institutions are composed of rules, norms, and cultural-cognitive beliefs, all of which shape social action. 16 Institutions include law and legal regimes, formal governance systems and policies, and informal or decentralized systems of governance, including collaborative management of common resources, community norms, loose networks for collective action, and the like. 17 Institutions can be analyzed at macro levels of large-scale struc-11.
Progress in Brain Research, 2009
Until recently, the constraints imposed on decision makers by the human physical conditionsituate... more Until recently, the constraints imposed on decision makers by the human physical conditionsituated both as a physical agent and within physical space-have played only an incidental, if not entirely inconsequential, role in conceptualizations of human decision making. The act of deciding has been positioned as the quintessence of traditional decision theory, while actual enactment of the decided action within physical space by a corporal actor, with all that this entails, has been regarded as the obvious and, therefore, scientifically uninteresting result of having made up one's mind (cf. Bagozzi et al., 2003). However, recent discoveries made in the area of embodied cognition regarding the involvement of fundamentally motoric representations in long-presumed ''cognitive'' systems (Wilson, 2002) potentially turned conventional wisdom upside-down. In this chapter, we go beyond prominent theories of action selection and decision making to rethink the link between mind and body as it pertains to the relatively novel frontier of embodied decision making. In particular, we reconceptualize what it means to evaluate one's options in light of recent advancements in embodied cognition, motor control, and dynamic decision making. In the process, we provide a much needed account of the primary theoretical issues that any good account would seem to be impelled to address. Perhaps the greatest contribution provided by the present chapter is an organizing framework that we hope will guide future research to the eventual answer to what it means to be an embodied decision maker.
Learning and Individual Differences, 2015
Ecology and Society, 2013