More Negative FRN From Stopping Searches Too Late Than Too Early: An ERP Study

It is widely known that the feedback from a decision outcome may evoke emotions like regret, which results from a comparison between the gain the decision-maker has made and the gain he/she might make. Less is known about how search behavior is linked to feedback in a sequential search task such as searching for jobs, employees, prices, investments, disinvestments, or other items. What are the neural responses once subjects decide to stop searching and receive the feedback that they stopped too early or too late compared with the optimal stopping time? In an experimental setting of a search task, we found that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) induced by the feedback from stopping too late was more negative than stopping too early, suggesting that subjects might experience stronger regret when stopping too late. Subjects preferred to stop searching earlier if the last feedback was that they stopped too late, and vice versa, although they did not always benefit more from such adjustment. This might reflect general patterns of human learning behavior, which also manifests in many other decisions. Gender differences and risk attitudes were also considered in the study.