Metacognitive Prompting Aids Dynamic Decision-Making

Recent research suggests that incubation is superior to metacognition in tasks involving many decision alternatives (Dijksterhuis et al., 2006). One explanation for these findings is the limited information processing capacity of working memory. The current study further investigates this topic by using more complex tasks as many errors in Dynamic Decision-Making (DDM) are thought to be related to limited processing. Our results indicate that metacognitive prompting results in better performance in DDM over incubation via a better strategy selection. Results are explained referring to methodological reasons and to literature on metacognition. In addition to the theoretical relevance, findings may be relevant for training programs using DDM simulations.