Conference at NeuroIS Gmunden 2018 in Vienna. Authors : Martin, Boyer, Léger, Dumont

1. Cognitive Fit and Visual
Pattern Recognition in
Financial Information System
An Experimental Study
Jérôme Martin
Martin Boyer
Pierre-Majorique Léger
Laurence Dumont
HEC Montréal
NeuroIS Retreat 2018
Vienna, June 19th - 21st

2. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Visual pattern recognition
in monitoring tasks
▪▪ Numerous IT jobs rely on visual pattern recogni-
tion in monitoring tasks.
▪▪ The case of technical traders using financial infor-
mation system.

3. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Research question
Examine the effect of attention and working
memory on the performance of traders in a recall
financial task.

4. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Literature review
Visual attention
Visual attention intervenes in the
decision-making process (Orquin &
Loose, 2013)
Visual attention plays an import-
ant role for pattern recognition
(Posner & Petersen, 1990)

5. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Can only store a limited amount of
information and for a short period
of time (Cowan, 2011; Miller, 1956).
Its capacity predicts performance
on a wide range of cognitive tasks
such as reasoning (Ackerman, Beier
& Boyle, 2005; Kane, Hambrick &
Conway, 2005), reading (Daneman
& Carpenter, 1980) and more.
Literature review
Working memory

6. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Two types of errors: miss and
false alarm (Tanner & Swets,
1954).
Literature review
Signal detection theory
Respond “Present” Respond “Absent”
Stimulus Present Hit Miss
Stimulus Absent False Alarm Correct Rejection

7. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Hypotheses
H1
The performance of decision
makers is positively correl-
ated to their working mem-
ory capacity.
H2
The performance of deci-
sion makers is positively
correlated to their attention
level.
H3
The performance of decision
makersisimpactednegatively
whenfacinganewtaskwhich
they think they have previ-
ously faced (false alarms trials).
H4
The performance of deci-
sion makers is less impacted
by their attention level for a
task they know they previ-
ously faced (hit trials).

8. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Experimental
design
Sociodemographic
questionnaire
investment
survey
Trading
simulations
N-back 1 test

9. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Apparatus
The eye movements were
tracked using an infrared
pupil reflection system (SMI
RED250) with a sampling
rate of 60 Hz.
We constructed one area of
interest (AOI) which captured
the whole chart for every scen-
ario of the Investment Survey.
SMI RED250
Eye Tracking Device

10. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Participants
▪▪ 30 participants (22 male and 8
female) aged between 18 and 42
years (average 24.63 and std. dev.
5.90).
▪▪ Fixed remuneration of 20$ at the
university’s bookstore and pos-
sibility to win an additional 200$
based on performance.

11. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Results
Statistical test:
Independentlinearmixedmodelwith
control variables
Effect on total profit B SE B DF t p
(H1) N-Back 1 score 22,938 12,921 450 1,43 0,038*
(H2) Number of fixations in the
chart
1,041 0,614 449 1,34 0,045*
Effect B SE B DF t p
(H3) N-Back 1 bias 64,501 25,548 448 2,52 0,012*
(H3) N-Back 1 bias with false alarm
trials
-82,598 26,478 448 -3,12 0,002*
(H4) Number of fixations in the
chart
1,625 0,647 447 2,51 0,012*
(H4) Number of fixations in the
chart with hit trials
-1,702 0,628 447 -2,71 0,007*
(H4) Fixations duration in the chart 0,004 0,002 448 2,17 0,031*
(H4) Fixations duration in the chart
with hit trials
-0,006 0,002 448 -2,81 0,005*
Table 1. Effect of working memory capacity and visual attention on total profit
Table 2. Effect of interaction between working memory capacity or visual
attention and the type of scenario on total profit
*p<.05

12. © Copyright Martin et al. 2018
Conclusion
▪▪ Both attention and working memory capacity are
positively correlated to performance. Importance
to use the right type of external representation.
▪▪ Decision makers are subject to overconfidence.
FISshouldhaveafunctionreportingtheresemblance
degree of visual patterns to simplify decision mak-
ing process.

13. Limitations and
future research
▪▪ Results are limited to novice
investors. Future research should
focus on expert decision makers.
▪▪ Future research should focus on
the impact of decision makers
emotionalreactionandoverconfi-
dence on decision makers’ prob-
lem-solving performance.

14. Thank you!