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Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
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Winning and losing: Effects on impulsive action.

Frederick Verbruggen1, Christopher D Chambers2, Natalia S Lawrence1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Exeter.

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|November 4, 2016
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Losses, not wins, increase impulsive behavior in decision-making tasks. This study reveals that experiencing losses in potential reward scenarios heightens impulsivity, challenging traditional views of cautiousness after negative outcomes.

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Traditional models suggest suboptimal outcomes lead to increased caution.
  • However, the emotional impact of losses on subsequent actions remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of wins and losses on impulsive action.
  • To determine if losses generalize to influence behavior in non-gambling tasks.

Main Methods:

  • Subjects performed tasks involving choices between gambles and non-gambles with varying win probabilities.
  • Reaction times for initiating subsequent trials were measured after wins and losses.
  • Experiments included both gambling and neutral decision-making tasks.

Main Results:

  • Losses in gambling tasks significantly increased the speed of initiating the next trial, indicating heightened impulsivity.
  • This effect generalized to a neutral decision-making task, showing losses broadly impact action initiation.
  • Wins did not show a comparable effect on impulsivity.

Conclusions:

  • Contrary to expectations, losses in contexts with potential rewards act as emotional triggers that enhance impulsivity.
  • The findings challenge the notion that humans invariably become more cautious after experiencing negative outcomes.
  • Losses appear to have a general effect on action, promoting faster, more impulsive responses.