ERIC Number: EJ1056044
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Nov
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Is Making a Risky Choice Based on a Weighting and Adding Process? An Eye-Tracking Investigation
Su, Yin; Rao, Li-Lin; Sun, Hong-Yue; Du, Xue-Lei; Li, Xingshan; Li, Shu
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v39 n6 p1765-1780 Nov 2013
The debate about whether making a risky choice is based on a weighting and adding process has a long history and is still unresolved. To address this long-standing controversy, we developed a comparative paradigm. Participants' eye movements in 2 risky choice tasks that required participants to choose between risky options in single-play and multiple-play conditions were separately compared with those in a baseline task in which participants naturally performed a deliberate calculation following a weighting and adding process. The results showed that, when participants performed the multiple-play risky choice task, their eye movements were similar to those in the baseline task, suggesting that participants may use a weighting and adding process to make risky choices in multiple-play conditions. In contrast, participants' eye movements were different in the single-play risky choice task versus the baseline task, suggesting that participants were not likely to use a weighting and adding process to make risky choices in single-play conditions and were more likely to use a heuristic process. We concluded that an expectation-based index for predicting risk preferences is applicable in multiple-play conditions but not in single-play conditions, implying the need to improve current theories that postulate the use of a heuristic process.
Descriptors: Eye Movements, Risk, Decision Making, Task Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Heuristics, Prediction, Models, College Students, Hypothesis Testing, Foreign Countries, Probability, Symbols (Mathematics), Games, Reaction Time, Cognitive Processes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A