Towards Understanding the Interplay of Cognitive demand and Arousal in Auction Bidding

IS perceptual constructs such as Arousal and Workload have shown to determine the impact of elements of user environment on their behaviour. While the impact of these constructs has been validated using a multitude of methods, there is little work which considers their dynamic interplay in determining behaviour. To this end, an auction setting where participants have shown differences in the first construct (arousal) due to auction dynamics is employed. We test whether the second construct (workload) is also observed under different auction complexities (dynamics and value uncertainty). By means of an experiment, we assess (i) frontal brain activity using EEG for workload, (ii) skin conductance response and heart rate for arousal, and (iii) bidders’ perceptions of workload and arousal using questionnaires. The first results show that high uncertainty and the introduction of a time pressure element leads to higher bids and higher deviations from Risk Neutral Nash Equilibrium (RNNE) strategy. In addition, subjects perceive higher workload under higher complexity, and this (concurs) with their workload index measured through EEG data. Further work will examine the interplay of arousal and workload, and whether only one construct plays a dominant role at a given point, or both act simultaneously.