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Similar processes despite divergent behavior in two commonly used measures of risky decision making
Author(s) -
Bishara Anthony J.,
Pleskac Timothy J.,
Fridberg Daniel J.,
Yechiam Eldad,
Lucas Jesolyn,
Busemeyer Jerome R.,
Finn Peter R.,
Stout Julie C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.641
Subject(s) - iowa gambling task , psychology , consistency (knowledge bases) , task (project management) , cognition , cognitive psychology , adaptive behavior , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , management , economics
Performance on complex decision‐making tasks may depend on a multitude of processes. Two such tasks, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), are of particular interest because they are associated with real world risky behavior, including illegal drug use. We used cognitive models to disentangle underlying processes in both tasks. Whereas behavioral measures from the IGT and BART were uncorrelated, cognitive models revealed two reliable cross‐task associations. Results suggest that the tasks similarly measure loss aversion and decision‐consistency processes, but not necessarily the same learning process. Additionally, substance‐using individuals (and especially stimulant users) performed worse on the IGT than healthy controls did, and this pattern could be explained by reduced decision consistency. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.