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The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Choice and Decision-Making

Wilkison, Claire N
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1510053529118277

Abstract Details

2017, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Psychology.
Individuals are prone to making decisions that appear to be suboptimal or biased. The present study focused on two decision paradigms individuals have shown decision biases under specific conditions: omission neglect and temporal discounting. Omission neglect refers to insensitivity to information that is not presented overtly in the moment of decision-making. Temporal discounting is the observation that the subjective value of a reinforcer decreases with delays in the delivery of that reinforce. The present study was designed to assess the extent to which specific cognitive processes (such as executive function, working and long-term memory, and decision styles) modulate performance on these decision-making paradigms, and to evaluate if engaging in episodic simulation, a process where individuals are asked to imagine in concrete details the scenario under their consideration, is effective in de-biasing individuals. Participants attended one two-hour session and were administered omission neglect scenarios, temporal discounting trials, neuropsychological measures, and decision style questionnaires. For omission neglect, participants rated how important they consider various attributes to be with respect to a decision, both in the absence (Time1) and presence (Time2) of certain important additional attribute(s). Participants demonstrated omission neglect when they overrated the importance of core attributes when additional important attributes were not presented yet. In temporal discounting, participants were asked to provide a present value (e.g., $85 now) that they thought was roughly equal to the subjective value of a delayed reward (e.g., $100 available in a month). Omission neglect and temporal discounting were tested both in conditions of episodic simulation and without simulation. All participants showed omission neglect when data were averaged across all scenarios; 63% showed omission neglect in each of the four scenarios tested. A larger omission neglect rate was found in scenarios specific to services compared to products. When administered after non-simulation, episodic simulation reduced the size of omission neglect (21.7%) compared to that found in the non-simulation condition (26.9%); when administered before non-simulation, omission neglect rates in the simulation (21%) condition and the non-simulation conditions (19.4%) were similar, suggesting an instruction carryover effect. Omission neglect was found to be significantly correlated only with neuropsychological measures of visuospatial memory, verbal memory, and word reading, but not with executive functioning measures. Due to a measurement design flaw, temporal discounting analyses were treated with caution. No significant correlations were found between measures of decision style and the decision biases. A neuropsychological self-report measure of executive functioning was found to be significantly correlated with both decision style measures. Taking into consideration study limitations, the data offer insight into the decision process related to omission neglect and show that normal participants are generally insensitive to important decision-relevant information not currently present before them; however, such insensitivity appears to be responsive to and reducible by episodic simulation. The data further confirms a link between the memory ability of participants and the extent of omission neglect that they showed. Future studies should examine this relationship further in clinical populations and examine factors that promote or minimize decision biases in different contexts.
Chung-Yiu Peter Chiu, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Quintino Mano, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Paula Shear, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
52 p.
Clinical Psychology
decision-making; neuropsychology; temporal discounting; episodic simulation; omission neglect; debiasing

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wilkison, C. N. (2017). The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Choice and Decision-Making [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1510053529118277

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wilkison, Claire. The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Choice and Decision-Making. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1510053529118277.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wilkison, Claire. "The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Choice and Decision-Making." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1510053529118277

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1510053529118277
112
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.