Abstract
Different systems for habitual versus goal-directed control are thought to underlie human decision-making. Working memory is known to shape these decision-making systems and their interplay, and is known to support goal-directed decision making even under stress. Here, we investigated if and how decision systems are differentially influenced by breaks filled with diverse everyday life activities known to modulate working memory performance. We used a within-subject design where young adults listened to music and played a video game during breaks interleaved with trials of a sequential two-step Markov decision task, designed to assess habitual as well as goal-directed decision making. Based on a neurocomputational model of task performance, we observed that for individuals with a rather limited working memory capacity video gaming as compared to music reduced reliance on the goal-directed decision-making system, while a rather large working memory capacity prevented such a decline. Our findings suggest differential effects of everyday activities on key decision-making processes.
Highlights
Decision making is an integral part of everyday life
There was no significant difference in the visual analogue scales (VAS) ratings of the difficulty of two task versions, t(32) = .46, p = .651, subjects’ ability to concentrate on the task after gaming and listening to music, t(32) = .27, p = .793, and the extent to which they thought about the task during the breaks, t(31) = -.56, p =
In line with these previous findings, we have found that gaming reduces reliance on the goal-directed decision system in low workingmemory individuals, suggesting that gaming may interfer with working memory resources needed for goal-directed planning
Summary
Decision making is an integral part of everyday life. People have to make choices within diverse decision-making environments. It has been found that taking a break benefits cognitive performance [1,2,3,4,5], possibly by providing a favorable condition for offline replay by minimizing the incoming interference information [6]. The effects of taking a break during the decision-making process remain to date to be explored. Decision making is influenced by two systems: the habitual and the goal-directed system. These two systems can be described computationally as model-free versus model-based, or by the terms retrospective versus prospective [7]. We recently observed significant correlations between goal-directed and model-based decision making, supporting the notion that these
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