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

Cogn Process. 2011 May;12(2):177-82. doi: 10.1007/s10339-010-0387-3. Epub 2011 Jan 6.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Decision Making / physiology*
  • Emotions / physiology*
  • Executive Function / physiology*
  • Feedback, Psychological / physiology
  • Female
  • Gambling
  • Games, Experimental
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Risk