A gaze bias with coarse spatial indexing during a gambling task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Decision Science

Background:

• Eye-tracking studies have linked gaze patterns to cognitive processes in decision-making.
• The gaze bias hypothesis suggests gaze influences preference formation by building commitment to a choice.
• The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a standard paradigm for studying decision-making under uncertainty and learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of gaze in decision-making within the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a task focused on choice optimization through learning rather than visual preference.
• To determine if gaze bias occurs in a learning-based decision task and whether it is influenced by motor responses or learning contingencies.

Main Methods:

• Gaze likelihood analysis was applied to participants performing a two-choice version of the IGT.
• Experiment 1 involved mouse-click responses, with participants choosing between decks with stable or varying outcome contingencies.
• Experiment 2 utilized key-press responses to differentiate gaze effects from eye-hand coordination.

Main Results:

• A significant gaze bias towards the chosen option was observed in both experiments, preceding the choice by over 400 ms.
• In Experiment 1, early gaze bias suggested a potential contribution of eye-hand coordination.
• Experiment 2, using key presses, confirmed the gaze bias independent of eye-hand coordination, indicating a role in non-perceptual decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Gaze bias is present in decision-making tasks that involve learning and choice optimization, not just visual preference.
• The findings suggest that gaze plays a role in coarse spatial indexing during decision-making, aiding in the selection of options.
• Eye-tracking data provides insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying learning-based choices in tasks like the IGT.