Adolescents, cognitive ability, and minimax play

•We replicate two seminal experiments on mixed strategy minimax solutions with adolescent subjects.•We collect information on subjects' cognitive abilities.•We find no correlation between the closeness to minimax play and cognitive ability.•We find no correlation between earnings and cognitive ability.•Adolescents' deviations from minimax play are similar to those found from adult play.

We conduct experiments with adolescent participants on repeated fixed play in three different zero-sum games which have mixed strategy minimax solutions. Further, we collect subject information on cognitive abilities and participation rates in competitive activities. We find the adolescents' correspondences with and deviations from minimax play largely consistent with previously and widely studied adult populations. Further, we find strategic sophistication in terms of implementation of the mixed minimax strategy as well as earnings are not correlated with cognitive ability or experience in competitive situations.