Sibilla Di Guida
DKK 2,400,000
Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF)
A behavioral investigation of the determinants of strategic learning
Do we learn from our own experiences? Or is our behavior indissolubly linked to our intelligence and upbringing? And if we learn, what do we really learn? Simply how to manage the specific situation we are facing, or are we able to unpack the complexity of the environment that surrounds us and to find the best way to solve the situation, subsequently transferring our learned experience to new contexts? Through laboratory experiments, we will study how the process of learning develops within the human mind. To do so, we will collect and analyze data on ocular movements via eye-tracking machineries, which are used as a tool to study the process of strategic reasoning. In the project, we will specifically test whether and how people can become more strategic through learning, which type of experience influences learning and whether it is possible to induce people to become less strategic, and lastly which type of learning can be transferred across situations. As of today, how learning is developed and in particular how information is collected and elaborated, then transferred to new situations, is yet an unclear and understudied process. The research team will be based at the University of Southern Denmark and will involve collaborations with the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca (Italy).