Decision-making under risk conditions is susceptible to interference by a secondary executive task

Recent research suggests two ways of making decisions: an intuitive and an analytical one. The current study examines whether a secondary executive task interferes with advantageous decision-making in the Game of Dice Task (GDT), a decision-making task with explicit and stable rules that taps executive functioning. One group of participants performed the original GDT solely, two groups performed either the GDT and a 1-back or a 2-back working memory task as a secondary task simultaneously. Results show that the group which performed the GDT and the secondary task with high executive load (2-back) decided less advantageously than the group which did not perform a secondary executive task. These findings give further evidence for the view that decision-making under risky conditions taps into the rational-analytical system which acts in a serial and not parallel way as performance on the GDT is disturbed by a parallel task that also requires executive resources.     

Decision-making,cognitive functions,impulsivity, and media multitasking expectancies in high versus low media multitaskers

In several studies, individuals who reported to frequently multitask with different media displayed reduced cognitive performance, for example in fluid intelligence and executive functioning. These cognitive functions are relevant for making advantageous decisions under both objective risk (requiring reflection and strategical planning) and ambiguous risk (requiring learning from feedback). Thus, compared to low media multitaskers (LMMs), high media multitaskers (HMMs) may perform worse in both types of decision situations. The current study investigated HMMs and LMMs in a laboratory setting with the Game of Dice Task (GDT; objective risk), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; ambiguous risk), various tests quantifying cognitive functions (logical reasoning, working memory, information processing, general executive functions), and self-report measures of impulsivity, media multitasking expectancies, and problematic Internet use. From 182 participants, 25 HMMs and 19 LMMs were identified using the Media Multitasking Index. Results show that HMMs compared to LMMs performed weaker on the IGT but not on the GDT. Furthermore, HMMs had slightly decreased performance in tests of logical reasoning and working memory capacity. HMMs tended to increased information processing speed but this difference was not significant. Furthermore, HMMs have more positive expectancies regarding media multitasking and reported higher tendencies toward problematic Internet use. HMMs and LMMs did not differ significantly with respect to impulsivity and executive functions. The results give a first hint that HMMs may have difficulties in decision-making under ambiguous but not under objective risk. HMMs may be more prone to errors in tasks that require feedback processing. However, HMMs appear not to be impaired in aspects of long-term strategic decision-making.

     

工作记忆更新任务中的认知优势效应

目的：采用N-back范式,探讨熟练双语者与非熟练双语者之间工作记忆更新能力的差异,以验证双语优势效应是否存在于工作记忆更新任务中。方法：采用数字型2-back任务,两因素混合实验设计。自变量分别为被试间变量(熟练双语者与非熟练双语者）和被试内变量（低难度任务组和高难度任务组）,因变量为2-back任务中目标刺激、非目标刺激、诱惑刺激和非诱惑刺激的准确率和反应时。结果：熟练双语者与非熟练双语者在低难度的2-back任务（一般的2-back任务）中,目标刺激和非目标刺激的准确率和反应时上没有差异;在高难度任务组（有冲突的2-back任务）中,熟练双语者在非目标刺激、诱惑刺激和非诱惑刺激的准确率显著高于非熟练双语者。结论：工作记忆更新中的“双语优势效应”更容易体现在高执行功能需求的条件下。     

Components of working memory and somatic markers in decision making

According to Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, affective reactions ordinarily guide and simplify decision making. In an earlier study, we used a modified version of the gambling task developed by Bechara and colleagues so that we could explore the relations among decision making, working memory (WM) load, and formation of somatic markers. This prior work found that an increased WM load produced by secondary tasks interfered with the development of somatic markers and led to poorer gambling task performance. In the present study, we tested whether secondary tasks affect the executive functions of WM, verbal buffering, or both. Our findings indicate that verbal buffering alone does not interfere with gambling task performance or the development of somatic markers. Interference with the executive functions of WM is necessary to disrupt gambling performance and somatic markers.     

Developmental changes in decision making under risk: The role of executive functions and reasoning abilities in 8- to 19-year-old decision makers

Previous studies have shown that children and adolescents often tend toward risky decisions despite explicit knowledge about the potential negative consequences. This phenomenon has been suggested to be associated with the immaturity of brain areas involved in cognitive control functions. Particularly, “frontal lobe functions,” such as executive functions and reasoning, mature until young adulthood and are thought to be involved in age-related changes in decision making under explicit risk conditions. We investigated 112 participants, aged 8–19 years, with a frequently used task assessing decisions under risk, the Game of Dice Task (GDT). Additionally, we administered the Modified Card Sorting Test assessing executive functioning (categorization, cognitive flexibility, and strategy maintenance) as well as the Ravens Progressive Matrices assessing reasoning. The results showed that risk taking in the GDT decreased with increasing age and this effect was not moderated by reasoning but by executive functions: Particularly, young persons with weak executive functioning showed very risky decision making. Thus, the individual maturation of executive functions, associated with areas in the prefrontal cortex, seems to be an important factor in young peoples’ behavior in risky decision-making situations.     

Anchor effects in decision making can be reduced by the interaction between goal monitoring and the level of the decision maker’s executive functions

Models of decision making postulate that interactions between contextual conditions and characteristics of the decision maker determine decision-making performance. We tested this assumption by using a possible positive contextual influence (goals) and a possible negative contextual influence (anchor) in a risky decision-making task (Game of Dice Task, GDT). In this task, making advantageous choices is well known to be closely related to a specific decision maker variable: the individual level of executive functions. One hundred subjects played the GDT in one of four conditions: with self-set goal for final balance (n?=?25), with presentation of an anchor (a fictitious Top 10 list, showing high gains of other participants; n?=?25), with anchor and goal definition (n?=?25), and with neither anchor nor goal setting (n?=?25). Subjects in the conditions with anchor made more risky decisions irrespective of the negative feedback, but this anchor effect was influenced by goal monitoring and moderated by the level of the subjects' executive functions. The findings imply that impacts of situational influences on decision making as they frequently occur in real life depend upon the individual's cognitive abilities. Anchor effects can be overcome by subjects with good cognitive abilities.     

挫折情境下自我肯定对执行功能的影响

为探讨挫折情境下自我肯定对执行功能的影响,创设挫折和非挫折情境,采用价值观自我肯定干预,通过Stroop范式和2-back范式分别测量抑制控制和工作记忆的刷新能力。结果发现,挫折情境下的Stroop任务和2-back任务反应时均高于非挫折情境;挫折情境下自我肯定组在Stroop任务和2-back任务上的反应时均显著低于非自我肯定组,而非挫折情境下两组的反应时没有显著性差异;Stroop效应量在情境与肯定条件上的交互作用不显著。结果表明挫折降低了执行功能的任务表现,自我肯定干预能够改善挫折情境下执行功能相关的任务成绩,促进了个体对工作记忆任务的刷新能力和Stroop任务的认知表现,但对抑制控制能力的改善没有明显作用。     

The impact of achievement goal states on working memory

The present study examines the influence of achievement goal states on working memory under varying executive load. Seventy-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either a mastery-approach condition (goal was to develop self-referential competence), a performance-approach condition (goal was to demonstrate normative competence) or a control condition (no goal assigned) prior to completing the N-Back working memory task. Analyses revealed achievement goal effects on working memory under high executive load (3-back) but not under the less demanding loads (1-back, 2-back). Under high load, pursuit of a performance-approach goal resulted in poorer working memory processing than pursuit of a mastery-approach goal or no-goal control. Findings are unlikely to be confounded by cognitive ability, working memory capacity or state-anxiety. Contributions to the motivation–cognition interface and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Role of working memory load on selective attention to affectively valent information

Empirical evidence obtained with neutral stimuli has shown that selective attention relies on working memory functions as distractor processing occurs under conditions of high but not of low working memory load. We investigated whether these findings also hold for affectively valent distractors. In three experiments, participants completed the original Flanker task with famous people (Exps 1 and 2) and an affective Flanker task (Exp. 3) in which positive and negative words were presented superimposed onto happy, angry, and neutral faces under conditions of high or low working memory load. In line with past findings, results showed greater interference effects due to processing of distractors showing known people under high working memory load. In contrast interference effects due to processing of valent distractors occurred regardless of working memory load. The present findings are in contrast with those reported with neutral stimuli as they indicate that automatic evaluation of incoming affectively valent information occurs regardless of task priorities and of working memory load.     

Emotion processing facilitates working memory performance

The effect of emotional stimulus content on working memory performance has been investigated with conflicting results, as both emotion-dependent facilitation and impairments are reported in the literature. To clarify this issue, 52 adult participants performed a modified visual 2-back task with highly arousing positive stimuli (sexual scenes), highly arousing negative stimuli (violent death) and low-arousal neutral stimuli. Emotional stimulus processing was found to facilitate task performance relative to that of neutral stimuli, both in regards to response accuracy and reaction times. No emotion-dependent differences in false-alarm rates were found. These results indicate that emotional information can have a facilitating effect on working memory maintenance and processing of information.     

Emotion processing facilitates working memory performance

The effect of emotional stimulus content on working memory performance has been investigated with conflicting results, as both emotion-dependent facilitation and impairments are reported in the literature. To clarify this issue, 52 adult participants performed a modified visual 2-back task with highly arousing positive stimuli (sexual scenes), highly arousing negative stimuli (violent death) and low-arousal neutral stimuli. Emotional stimulus processing was found to facilitate task performance relative to that of neutral stimuli, both in regards to response accuracy and reaction times. No emotion-dependent differences in false-alarm rates were found. These results indicate that emotional information can have a facilitating effect on working memory maintenance and processing of information.     

Happiness increases verbal and spatial working memory capacity where sadness does not: Emotion,working memory and executive control

The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.     

Do amnesic patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome use feedback when making decisions under risky conditions? An experimental investigation with the Game of Dice Task with and without feedback

We investigated the role of feedback processing in decision making under risk conditions in 50 patients with amnesia in the course of alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome (KS). Half of the patients were administered the Game of Dice Task (GDT) and the remaining 25 patients were examined with a modified version of the GDT in which no feedback was provided. Patients' results in the GDT and in the modified version were compared with that of 50 healthy subjects of whom 25 subjects performed the original GDT and 25 performed the modified version. While performance on the original GDT was superior to performance on the modified GDT in healthy subjects, KS patients performed similarly on both the GDT with and GDT without feedback. Performance on both task versions was correlated with categorization and set-shifting. The findings indicate that amnesic patients do not profit from receiving feedback for their decisions in explicit risk conditions.     

Is short‐term memory involved in decision making? Evidence from a short‐term memory patient

It is reasonable to suggest that working memory (WM; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974 ) is involved in decision making, as decision making is dependent on the ability to remember and update past choices and outcomes. However, contradictory results have been reported in the literature concerning the role of two of its components, namely the central executive and the phonological loop. In order to investigate the role of these components in the decision‐making process, we tested a patient with intact central executive but impaired phonological loop on a laboratory decision‐making task involving hypothetical gambles (gambling task, GT). When tested in a no‐load condition (simple keypress task), her performance was not significantly different from that of matched controls. We also verified whether her performance would be affected differently by memory‐load when compared with control subjects. The memory task (holding a string of letters in memory) loaded WM without incurring number‐number interference. When the memory‐load was imposed during the GT, both the patient and the controls showed a decline in performance, but the strategy they adopted differed. Possible explanations are discussed. In conclusion, our results suggest that the phonological loop is not directly involved in decision making.     

Decision making under risk condition in patients with Parkinson's disease: a behavioural and fMRI study

We aimed to study whether previously described impairment in decision making under risky conditions in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is affected by deficits in using information about potential incentives or by processing feedback (in terms of fictitious gains and losses following each decision). Additionally, we studied whether the neural correlates of using explicit information in decision making under risk differ between PD patients and healthy subjects. We investigated ten cognitively intact PD patients and twelve healthy subjects with the Game of Dice Task (GDT) to assess risky decision making, and with an fMRI paradigm to analyse the neural correlates of information integration in the deliberative decision phase. Behaviourally, PD patients showed selective impairment in the GDT but not on the fMRI task that did not include a feedback component. Healthy subjects exhibited lateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate and parietal activations when integrating decision-relevant information. Despite similar behavioural patterns on the fMRI task, patients exhibited reduced parietal activation. Behavioural results suggest that PD patients' deficits in risky decision making are dominated by impaired feedback utilization not compensable by intact cognitive functions. Our fMRI results suggest similarities but also differences in neural correlates when using explicit information for the decision process, potentially indicating different strategy application even if the interfering feedback component is excluded.     

Susceptibility of spatial and verbal working memory to demands of the central executive

We used a dual-task paradigm to examine the degree to which domain-specific spatial and verbal subsystems depend on the domain-general central executive. Forty participants were asked to retain spatial or verbal information while performing a concurrent secondary task related to simple arithmetic. The secondary tasks consisted of three cognitive processes: single-digit addition, a digit-carrying operation, and digit reading. The single-digit addition and carry operation include central executive functioning, while digit reading relies solely on the phonological loop. The single-digit addition caused a performance decrement on the spatial working memory task, while the digit reading impaired performance on the verbal working memory task. The carry operation interfered with recall accuracy on both working memory tasks. The spatial working memory task was significantly correlated with the verbal working memory task only when the secondary task was more demanding on the central executive. Our results suggest that spatial working memory rather than verbal working memory is susceptible to failure of central executive functioning and that the central executive plays an important role in regulating the cognitive demands of different domains.     

COMT val158Met and executive control: a test of the benefit of specific deficits to translational research

The role of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met in prefrontal cortical deficits associated with the liability to schizophrenia remains controversial. This study evaluated 464 healthy adult participants using three measures of executive functions in working memory: a 3-back version of the N-back continuous performance task (CPT) and two variants of the AX-CPT. The interpretability of N-back performance was confounded by possible generalized deficits, whereas the AX variants included internal controls for uncovering specific deficits. There was no relationship between the COMT genotype and N-back performance, whereas val/val individuals had a specific deficit on a dot-pattern version of the AX-CPT. In this case, a specific executive function known as context processing appeared to be compromised. These data suggest that the interpretability gained by including task manipulations to uncover specific deficits can enhance associations between cognitive and genetic levels of analysis.     

Working memory involvement in emotion-based processes underlying choosing advantageously

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is widely used to assess decision making under conditions of uncertainty in clinical as well as in nonclinical populations. However, there is still debate as to whether normal performance at this task relies on implicit, emotion-based processes that are independent of working memory. To clarify the role of working memory on normal performance on the IGT, participants performed the task under low or high working memory load. We used a modified version of the original task, in which the position of the four decks was randomized between trials. Results showed that only participants performing under low memory load significantly chose more advantageously halfway through the task. In addition, when comparing the number of cards chosen from the two decks with frequent losses, one advantageous and one disadvantageous, only participants performing under low memory load chose more cards from the advantageous deck. The present findings indicate that the processes underlying optimal advantageous performance on the IGT rely on working memory functions.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder is associated with limited executive resources in a working memory task

Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can show declines in working memory. A dual-task design was used to determine whether these impairments are linked to executive control limitations. Participants performed a Sternberg memory task with either one or four letters. In the dual-task condition, the maintenance period was filled with an arrow flanker task. PTSD patients were less accurate on the working memory task than were controls, especially in the dual-task condition. In the single-task condition, both groups showed similar patterns of brain potentials from 300 to 500 ms when discriminating old and new probes. However, when taxed with an additional task, the event-related potentials (ERPs) of the PTSD group no longer differentiated old and new probes. In contrast, interference resolution processes in both the single- and dual-task conditions of the flanker task were intact. The lack of differentiation in the ERPs reflects impaired working memory performance under more difficult, dual-task conditions. Exacerbated difficulty in performing a working memory task with concurrent task demands suggests a specific limitation in executive control resources in PTSD.     

Affective and cognitive modulation of performance monitoring: Behavioral and ERP evidence

This study investigates the effects of negative affect on performance monitoring. EEG was acquired during a lateralized, numeric Stroop working memory task that featured task-irrelevant aversive and neutral pictures between stimuli. Performance accuracy showed a right-hemisphere advantage for stimuli that followed aversive pictures. Response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) from accurate trials showed an early negative component (CRN; correct response/conflict-related negativity) followed by a positive wave comparable to the Pe (error positivity). The CRN was bi-peaked with an earlier peak that was sensitive to aversive pictures during early portions of the experiment and a later peak that increased with error likelihood later in the experiment. Pe amplitude was increased with aversive pictures early in the experiment and was sensitive to picture type, Stroop interference, and hemisphere of stimulus delivery during later trials. This suggests that ERP indices of performance monitoring, the CRN and Pe, are dynamically modulated by both affective and cognitive demands.