Eye Movements in Risky Choice

We asked participants to make simple risky choices while we recorded their eye movements. We built a complete statistical model of the eye movements and found very little systematic variation in eye movements over the time course of a choice or across the different choices. The only exceptions were finding more (of the same) eye movements when choice options were similar, and an emerging gaze bias in which people looked more at the gamble they ultimately chose. These findings are inconsistent with prospect theory, the priority heuristic, or decision field theory. However, the eye movements made during a choice have a large relationship with the final choice, and this is mostly independent from the contribution of the actual attribute values in the choice options. That is, eye movements tell us not just about the processing of attribute values but also are independently associated with choice. The pattern is simple—people choose the gamble they look at more often, independently of the actual numbers they see—and this pattern is simpler than predicted by decision field theory, decision by sampling, and the parallel constraint satisfaction model. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Cautious Defection: Group Representatives Cooperate and Risk Less than Individuals

Individuals often make decisions that affect groups, yet the propensities of group representatives are not as well understood than those of independent decision makers or deliberating groups. We ask how responsibility for group payoffs—in the absence of group deliberation—affects the choice. The experiment utilizes the Interdependent Security Dilemma paradigm. In its deterministic version, the game is identical to a finitely repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. In the stochastic version, potential losses are larger but uncertain, occurring with a predefined probability when one or both players choose to forgo investment in protection. Participants were assigned to play either as individuals, or as representatives of three‐person groups, with each member's choices equally likely to determine the group's payoffs. In the deterministic condition, individuals were more likely to invest (cooperate) than group representatives (80% vs. 62% of rounds). In the stochastic condition, the pattern was reversed as representatives were slightly, but not significantly, more likely to invest than individuals (46% vs. 40%). The significant interaction effect suggested that group representatives were not only less cooperative but also more risk averse than individuals. A follow‐up study supported this account by showing participants who construed the invest strategy as low‐risk than those who perceived this strategy to be high risk. Overall, group representatives exhibited a tendency to act more competitively and more cautiously than individuals acting alone. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

For better or for worse: Social influences on risk-taking

This study investigated changes in risk-taking propensity on a behavioral decision-making task as a function of varying social conditions with peers. In contrast to the effects of direct peer influence (pro-risk and anti-risk messages by peers), we included a socially ambiguous context (neutral messages by peers) and a no-peer control (participants alone) as comparison conditions. Using a counterbalanced mixed factorial design, college students (N = 187) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task-Youth (BART-Y) twice during two consecutive sessions, including once alone and once with a confederate; the control group completed two sessions of the task alone. The findings showed that, in general, direct pro-risk messages led to the most robust and consistent changes in risk-taking. The findings are discussed in terms of the multidimensional and multidirectional nature of peer influence during the college years.     

Associations of Stress Exposures and Social Support With Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes Among U.S. Iraq War Veterans

The long-term mental health effects of war-zone deployment in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on military personnel are a significant public health concern. Using data collected prospectively at three distinct assessments during 2003–2014 as part of the Neurocognition Deployment Health Study and VA Cooperative Studies Program Study #566, we explored how stress exposures prior, during, and after return from deployment influence the long-term mental health outcomes of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and problem drinking. Longer-term mental health outcomes were assessed in 375 service members and military veterans an average of 7.5 years (standard deviation = 1.0 year) after the initial (i.e., “index”) Iraq deployment following their predeployment assessment. Anxiety disorder was the most commonly observed long-term mental health outcome (36.0%), followed by depression (24.5%), PTSD (24.3%), and problem drinking (21.0%). Multivariable regression models showed that greater postdeployment stressors, as measured by the Post-Deployment Life Events scale, were associated with greater risk of depression, anxiety disorders, and problem drinking. Anxiety disorder was the only outcome affected by predeployment stress concerns. In addition, greater postdeployment social support was associated with lower risk of all outcomes except problem drinking. These findings highlight the importance of assessing postdeployment stress exposures, such as stressful or traumatic life events, given the potential impact of these stressors on long-term mental health outcomes. This study also highlights the importance of postdeployment social support as a modifiable protective factor that can be used to help mitigate risk of long-term adverse mental health outcomes following war-zone exposure.     

不同类型罪犯在爱荷华赌博任务中的决策功能缺陷

采用爱荷华赌博任务(Behcara等人1994年版本)测量了8类共222名在监男性罪犯以及32名普通男性的决策功能, 并运用前景效用学习模型分析了不同类型罪犯在情感决策中的心理功能缺陷。罪犯组选择牌1的比例与控制组没有显著差异, 选择牌2的比例显著高于控制组, 选择牌3和牌4的比例显著低于控制组。暴力犯和涉黑犯对收益和损失都不敏感, 对过去的预期效用折扣很快; 吸毒犯(已戒除)、涉毒犯、盗窃犯和抢劫犯对奖赏加工正常, 对惩罚不敏感; 经济犯选择一致性最低; 性罪犯选择一致性最高。结果表明不同类型罪犯在爱荷华赌博任务中都具有决策功能缺陷, 但他们的决策功能缺陷由不同的心理功能缺陷所致。     

Risk strategy under task complexity: a multivariate analysis of behaviour in a naturalistic setting

This study complements the existing literature on decision-making processes and outcomes in complex settings by exploring the impact of different types of complexity on risk strategies in a naturalistic setting. The study analyses a large sample of decisions made by individuals in UK offcourse betting markets, a fertile environment for observing both a variety of risk strategies and a range of task complexities. Specifically, the investigation focuses on the comparative impacts of complexity defined in terms, respectively, of alternatives and attributes. The results suggest that the risk strategy employed is affected by task complexity. Complexity does not affect the size of risk accepted but alternative- and attribute-based complexity together influence the propensity to accept greater degrees of risk. In addition, the effect of attribute-based complexity on risk taking appears to be modified by the use of risk-hedging strategies. The results are observed to corroborate some earlier work on decision process and outcome; where differences with earlier findings are identified, some possible explanations are offered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infant crying,risk status and social support in families of preterm and term infants

Infant crying influences the caregiver and the broader caregiving environment. In this study, cry acoustics were recorded and acoustically analyzed from a sample of fullterm and preterm infants at 40 weeks gestational age, along with the medical risk and socioeconomic status (SES) of the family. Following factor analysis of the cry acoustics, cry factors, along with medical risk and SES were used to predict patterns of social support in the informal (family, friends) and formal (health care providers) social support networks at 44 weeks gestational age. One cry factor, temporal patterning, indicative of the influence of respiratory factors on the infant's cry, predicted a significant amount of variance in the amount of support from the informal network, beyond that predicted from medical risk and SES. Medical risk alone predicted the amount of contact with the formal network, and SES predicted satisfaction with help from the formal network. There were different patterns of relationship between cry acoustics and social support for families with term and preterm infants, indicating that caregivers may interpret and respond to different information in the acoustics of their infants' cries. These findings have implications for understanding how infant crying and behavior influence the caregiving environment and for the clinical management of early cry problems in families with infants differing in risk status. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Genetic differences in the mouse defense test battery

The mouse defense test battery (MDTB) has been designed to examine anxiogenic- or anxiolytic-like properties of psychoactive drugs through effects on specific defensive behaviors. In the present study, the MDTB was used to evaluate the potential contribution of genetic factors to these behaviors. The data revealed pronounced differences in several defense reactions among four inbred strains (BALB/c, C57BL/6, CBA, DBA/2) and one outbred (Swiss) mouse line. Thus, when subjects were introduced into the apparatus, Swiss and C57BL/6 displayed the highest levels of horizontal and vertical activities, while BALB/c and DBA/2 mice showed intermediate and CBA low activity rates. When subjects were chased by the rat, C57BL/6 mice used flight as the dominant defense strategy, while the defensive responses of BALB/c, C57BL/6, and DBA/2 mice consisted of flight reactions and risk assessment activities. However, when flight or escape was not possible, risk assessment became the predominant feature of the defense repertoire in the C57BL/6 mice. When defensive threat/attack behaviors were required, Swiss, BALB/c, DBA/2, and C57BL/6 mice showed very similar reactions in terms of the magnitude of the responses observed. CBA mice were poorly defensive in all these test situations. Finally, after the rat was removed from the test apparatus, Swiss, DBA/2, and C57BL/6 mice displayed more vertical activities than BALB/c mice. These latter, however, showed an increased level of ambulation compared to the activity recorded before the rat exposure. Together, these findings indicate that genetic factors contribute to defensive behaviors in this animal model of anxiety. The different behavioral profiles displayed by the strains used here may provide the means to obtain a better insight into the neurobehavioral mechanisms involved in anxiety-related disorders. Aggr. Behav. 23:19–31, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The Melbourne decision making questionnaire: an instrument for measuring patterns for coping with decisional conflict

A study was conducted to examine the factorial validity of the Flinders Decision Making Questionnaire (Mann, 1982), a 31-item self-report inventory designed to measure tendencies to use three major coping patterns identified in the conflict theory of decision making (Janis and Mann, 1977): vigilance, hypervigilance, and defensive avoidance (procrastination, buck-passing, and rationalization). A sample of 2051 university students, comprising samples from Australia (n=262), New Zealand (n=260), the USA (n=475), Japan (n=359), Hong Kong (n=281) and Taiwan (n=414) was administered the DMQ. Factorial validity of the instrument was tested by confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL. Five different substantive models, representing different structural relationships between the decision-coping patterns had unsatisfactory fit to the data and could not be validated. A shortened instrument, containing 22 items, yielded a revised model comprising four identifiable factors–vigilance, hypervigilance, buck-passing, and procrastination. The revised model had adequate fit with data for each country sample and for the total sample, and was confirmed. It is recommended that the 22-item instrument, named the Melbourne DMQ, replace the Flinders DMQ for measurement of decision-coping patterns. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.