The effect of reward magnitude differences on choosing disadvantageous decks in the Iowa Gambling Task

In the Iowa Gambling Task, participants have to develop a long-term profitable monetary scenario in a situation of uncertainty and a conflict between the chance of encountering an immediate large reward (100 US dollars) in two long-term loosing decks (A and B; -250 US dollars per 10 cards) and the chance of encountering an immediate small reward (50 US dollars) in two long-term winning decks (C and D; +250 US dollars per 10 cards). The ratio of the immediate rewards in decks A/B and C/D is thus 2:1. Here, we manipulated these differences in reward magnitude between the advantageous (C/D) and disadvantageous (A/B) decks, while keeping the net gains and losses per 10 cards the same, to assess the impact of the conflict between immediate and distant pay-off on choice behaviour. Participants selected less cards from disadvantageous decks and won more money when the reward magnitude difference was decreased, A/B:C/D=1:1, while they selected more cards from disadvantageous decks and lost more money when reward magnitude differences were increased, A/B:C/D=4:1 and 6:1. This study shows that the outcome in the Iowa Gambling Task is sensitive to differences between the magnitude of immediate rewards in the advantageous and disadvantageous decks.

[1]  Dopamine and serotonin: Integrating current affective engagement with longer-term goals , 1999, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[2]  B. Spruijt,et al.  A concept of welfare based on reward evaluating mechanisms in the brain: anticipatory behaviour as an indicator for the state of reward systems. , 2001, Applied animal behaviour science.

[3]  C. Allen,et al.  The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition , 2002 .

[4]  W. Schultz,et al.  Discrete Coding of Reward Probability and Uncertainty by Dopamine Neurons , 2003, Science.

[5]  P. Shizgal,et al.  Gambling on Dopamine , 2003, Science.

[6]  M. Linnoila,et al.  Excessive mortality in young free-ranging male nonhuman primates with low cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid concentrations. , 1996, Archives of general psychiatry.

[7]  Samuel M. McClure,et al.  Separate Neural Systems Value Immediate and Delayed Monetary Rewards , 2004, Science.

[8]  E. Crone,et al.  Heart rate and skin conductance analysis of antecendents and consequences of decision making. , 2004, Psychophysiology.

[9]  W. Schultz.  Neural coding of basic reward terms of animal learning theory, game theory, microeconomics and behavioural ecology , 2004, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[10]  H. Damasio,et al.  Characterization of the decision-making deficit of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[11]  A. Damasio,et al.  Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex , 1994, Cognition.

[12]  H. Damasio,et al.  Dissociation Of Working Memory from Decision Making within the Human Prefrontal Cortex , 1998, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[13]  Monique Ernst,et al.  Decision-making in a Risk-taking Task: A PET Study , 2002, Neuropsychopharmacology.

[14]  E. Crone,et al.  Developmental Changes in Real Life Decision Making: Performance on a Gambling Task Previously Shown to Depend on the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex , 2004, Developmental neuropsychology.

[15]  K. R. Ridderinkhof,et al.  Neurocognitive mechanisms of cognitive control: The role of prefrontal cortex in action selection, response inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[16]  A. Simmons,et al.  Selective activation of the nucleus accumbens during risk-taking decision making , 2004, Neuroreport.

[17]  A. Smit,et al.  Synapse Formation between Central Neurons Requires Postsynaptic Expression of the MEN1 Tumor Suppressor Gene , 2001, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[18]  Gregory P. Lee,et al.  Different Contributions of the Human Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex to Decision-Making , 1999, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[19]  D. A. Lieberman,et al.  Learning: Behavior and cognition , 1990 .

[20]  M. Linnoila,et al.  Low CSF 5-HIAA concentrations and severe aggression and impaired impulse control in nonhuman primates. , 1994, The American journal of psychiatry.

[21]  A. Damasio,et al.  Emotion, decision making and the orbitofrontal cortex. , 2000, Cerebral cortex.

[22]  M. Linnoila,et al.  Correlation of CSF 5-HIAA concentration with sociality and the timing of emigration in free-ranging primates. , 1995, The American journal of psychiatry.

[23]  Hanna Damasio,et al.  Decision-making and addiction (part I): impaired activation of somatic states in substance dependent individuals when pondering decisions with negative future consequences , 2002, Neuropsychologia.

[24]  R. Poland,et al.  CSF testosterone and 5-HIAA correlate with different types of aggressive behaviors , 1996, Biological Psychiatry.

[25]  Brian Knutson,et al.  Anticipation of Increasing Monetary Reward Selectively Recruits Nucleus Accumbens , 2001, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[26]  Derek M. Isaacowitz,et al.  Emotion and cognition. , 2000 .

[27]  A. Damasio,et al.  Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the Advantageous Strategy , 1997, Science.

[28]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  The new cognitive neurosciences , 2000 .