Dr Adrian Banks

BSc(St And) MSc PhD(Sur)
Lecturer

Reasoning ability is the single biggest predictor of performance at work (aside from completing samples of the work itself) and plays a key role in many problems, arguments and decisions in our non-work lives too. However in formal education and training settings explicit development of this skill is comparatively neglected. My research, along with those who have worked with me, aims to develop understanding of peoples’ reasoning processes, and applies this to naturalistic settings to both improve reasoning performance and in turn to extend theoretical understanding.

To do this I study traditional deductive reasoning problems, such as syllogisms, but also: reasoning in groups & teams; dynamic, time-pressured situations; the reasoning of experts; reasoning situated in human-machine systems; and informal logic tasks. These studies involve a combination of laboratory based experiments, synthetic tasks to study more complex situations in a controlled fashion and a range of knowledge elicitation techniques with experts such as verbal protocol analysis. More recently, I have modelled the reasoning processes computationally using ACT-R.

The work on group reasoning has focused on the distribution of information amongst a group or team. These studies showed that teams were able to efficiently distribute the reasoning process amongst themselves if the information was divided into coherent modules or component parts. This finding contrasts with the theory of shared mental models which suggests that similar mental models should be held by team members to ensure similar expectations arise (through a reasoning process) as this leads to good team performance, especially on dynamic tasks. Extending my research to these kinds of tasks, I found that the relative merits of sharing or distributing information depended on what type of knowledge was required and the novelty of the task situation.

Currently I am working on individual reasoning and have focused on the role of prior beliefs and experiences. This has involved modelling belief bias effects computationally to better specify the processes involved. I am also investigating these effects in a more naturalistic task by eliciting the reasoning processes of experts and non-experts in various business situations.

 

Publications and Selected Conference Presentations

Journal Articles

Groeger, J.A., Banks, A.P., & Simpson, P.J. (2008). Serial memory for sound specified locations: Effects of spatial uncertainty and motor suppression. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 248-262.

Banks, A.P. & Millward, L.J. (2007). Differentiating knowledge in teams: The effect of shared declarative and procedural knowledge on performance. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research & Practice, 11, 95-106.

Groeger, J.A. & Banks, A.P. (2007). Anticipating the content and circumstances of skill transfer: Unrealistic expectations of driver training and graduated licensing. Ergonomics, 50, 1250-1263.

Russell, E., Millward-Purvis, L. & Banks, A. (2007). Describing the strategies used for dealing with email interruptions according to different situational parameters. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 1820-1837.

Gore, J., Banks, A., Millward, L.J., & Kyriakidou, O. (2006). Naturalistic Decision Making and organisations: Reviewing pragmatic science. Organization Studies, 27, 925-942.

Banks, A.P. & McKeran, W. J. (2005). Team situation awareness, shared displays & performance. The International Journal of Cognitive Technology, 10, 23-28.

Banks, A.P. & Millward, L.J. (2000). Running shared mental models as a distributed cognitive process. British Journal of Psychology, 91, 513-531.

 

Book Chapters

McAndrew, C., Banks, A., & Gore, J. (2008). Bridging microcognitive and macrocognitive methods: ACT-R under review. In J. M. Schraagen, L. Militello, T. Ormerod, & R. Lipshitz (Eds). Naturalistic Decision Making and Macrocognition.

Banks, A.P. (2005). Markov, Andrei Andreevich In B. Everitt & D. Howell (Eds). Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science. Wiley: London.

Selected Conference Papers

Banks, A.P. (2008). An activation level account of belief bias: Modelling the effects of belief strength. Sixth International Conference on Thinking, Venice.

Banks, A.P. (2006). The influence of belief on relational reasoning. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual ACT-R Workshop.

Banks, A.P. (2006). Belief bias in relational reasoning: An effect of source misattributions? North of England Thinking Group, Lancaster.

Banks, A.P. (2006). The persuasiveness of informal reasoning fallacies. British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Lancaster.

Groeger, J.A., Banks, A.P., & Simpson, P.J. (2006). Memory for serial order of sound specified locations: Evidence for spatial errors and motor suppression. British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Lancaster.

Banks, A.P., & McKeran, W.J. (2006). The influence of sharing displays on team situation awareness and performance. In P. Bust (Ed.). Contemporary Ergonomics. Taylor & Francis.

Gore, J., Banks, A., & Millward, L. (2006). Converging frameworks: Naturalistic Decision Making, foresight and organizational becoming. British Academy of Management Conference.

Banks, A.P. (2004). Group reasoning about complex causal systems. Fifth International Conference on Thinking, Leuven.

Banks, A.P., McKeran, W., & Millward, L.J. (2003). Should task information be shared or distributed in a team?  The Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition Biennial conference, Aberdeen.

Banks, A.P., Macklin, C., & Millward, L.J. (2002). Distribution of causal reasoning in groups.  British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Canterbury.

Banks, A.P. & Millward, L.J. (2001). Shared or distributed mental models? The effect of task difficulty on distributing cognition. British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Edinburgh.

Banks, A. P. & Millward, L.J. (2000). Problem solving using shared mental models as a distributed cognitive process. Fourth International Conference on Thinking, Durham.

Banks, A.P. & Millward, L.J. (1999). The role of organisation and overlap in shared mental models. British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, York.