Abstract
The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates uncertain gains and losses in real life situations and thus is a good measure of uncertain decision-making. The role of working memory (WM) in IGT performance still remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the effect of WM on IGT performance. Three groups of participants matched on gender ratio were randomly assigned to no WM load, low WM load, and high WM load conditions. Initially the three groups did not show significant difference in WM capacity. They finished a modified version of IGT and then their implicit learning effect and explicit cognition on IGT were assessed. Results indicated a linear increasing trend of IGT performance among high WM load, low WM load and no WM load groups; participants in the no WM load and low WM load groups revealed implicit learning effect, while participants in the high WM load group did not; all participants showed explicit cognition on IGT to the same level. These results suggested that participants in the high WM load group showed good explicit cognition to IGT but showed poor performance. This pattern is similar to frontal patients. Further studies should be conducted to explore this issue.
Highlights
Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) AND UNCERTAIN DECISION-MAKING Decision-making is closely related to people’s life, and usually a certain degree of uncertainty is involved in decision-making (Platt and Huettel, 2008)
The results showed that the high working memory (WM) capacity individuals performed more advantageously in the IGT, which suggested the role of WM in uncertain decision-making
To summarize, the present study revealed that WM played a partial role in IGT performance
Summary
IGT AND UNCERTAIN DECISION-MAKING Decision-making is closely related to people’s life, and usually a certain degree of uncertainty is involved in decision-making (Platt and Huettel, 2008). The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates the uncertainty of gains and losses in real life situations through the setting of monetary reward and punishments (Bechara et al, 1994). It is a good analogy of the uncertain decision-making in daily life and received much attention and studies since it is being developed. Participants were presented with four decks of cards and asked to select cards from these decks to earn as much money as possible Of these four decks, two show large immediate wins but sometimes even larger losses cause loss upon repeated plays in the long run, so they are disadvantageous decks. The other two decks show small immediate wins and sometimes smaller losses cause win upon repeated choice in the long run, so these are advantageous decks
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