Self-relevance enhances evidence gathering during decision-making.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Decision Science

Background:

• Self-relevant material is typically prioritized during stimulus appraisal.
• The impact of self-relevance on task performance under challenging processing conditions remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if self-relevance enhances task performance under demanding cognitive load.
• To explore the underlying mechanisms of self-prioritization in decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a backward masking procedure to present stimuli under challenging conditions.
• Employed an object-ownership task where participants identified object ownership (self vs. best friend).
• Applied drift diffusion model analysis to examine decision-making processes.

Main Results:

• Confirmed a self-ownership effect: faster and more accurate responses for self-owned objects compared to friend-owned objects.
• Drift diffusion modeling revealed a stimulus bias favoring self-owned items.
• Evidence accumulation was significantly faster for self-owned stimuli.

Conclusions:

• Self-relevance facilitates task performance even when stimuli are processed under challenging conditions.
• The self-prioritization effect is driven by an enhanced stimulus bias, leading to faster evidence accumulation.
• These findings deepen our understanding of self-prioritization in cognitive and decisional processes.