The Effect of Individual Coordination Ability on Cognitive-Load in Tacit Coordination Games

Abstract

Tacit coordination games are coordination games in which communication between the players is not allowed or not possible. Some players manage to reason about the selections made by the co-player while others fail to do so and might turn to rely on guessing. The aim of this study is to examine whether good coordinators are associated with a higher or lower cognitive load relative to weaker coordinators. We aimed to answer this question by using an electrophysiological marker of cognitive load, i.e., Theta/Beta Ratio. Results show that good coordinators are associated with a higher cognitive load with respect to weaker coordinators.