Marshall Andrew T, Kirkpatrick Kimberly
Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University.
J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn. 2017 Jul;43(3):262-279. doi: 10.1037/xan0000141.
Risky decisions are inherently characterized by the potential to receive gains or incur losses, and these outcomes have distinct effects on subsequent decision-making. One important factor is that individuals engage in loss-chasing, in which the reception of a loss is followed by relatively increased risk-taking. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of loss-chasing are poorly understood, despite the potential importance for understanding pathological choice behavior. The goal of the present experiment was to illuminate the mechanisms governing individual differences in loss-chasing and risky-choice behaviors. Rats chose between a low-uncertainty outcome that always delivered a variable amount of reward and a high-uncertainty outcome that probabilistically delivered reward. Loss-processing and loss-chasing were assessed in the context of losses disguised as wins (LDWs), which are loss outcomes that are presented along with gain-related stimuli. LDWs have been suggested to interfere with adaptive decision-making in humans and thus potentially increase loss-making. Here, the rats presented with LDWs were riskier, in that they made more choices for the high-uncertainty outcome. A series of nonlinear models were fit to individual rats' data to elucidate the possible psychological mechanisms that best account for individual differences in high-uncertainty choices and loss-chasing behaviors. The models suggested that the rats presented with LDWs were more prone to showing a stay bias following high-uncertainty outcomes compared to rats not presented with LDWs. These results collectively suggest that LDWs acquire conditioned reinforcement properties that encourage continued risk-taking and increase loss-chasing following previous high-risk decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record
风险决策的本质特征是有可能获得收益或遭受损失，而这些结果对后续决策有着不同的影响。一个重要因素是个体存在损失追逐行为，即遭受损失后会相对增加冒险行为。不幸的是，尽管损失追逐机制对于理解病理性选择行为具有潜在重要性，但人们对此了解甚少。本实验的目的是阐明控制个体在损失追逐和风险选择行为上差异的机制。大鼠在一个总是给予可变数量奖励的低不确定性结果和一个概率性给予奖励的高不确定性结果之间进行选择。在伪装成胜利的损失（LDWs）情境中评估损失处理和损失追逐，LDWs是与收益相关刺激一起呈现的损失结果。有人认为LDWs会干扰人类的适应性决策，从而可能增加损失。在这里，面对LDWs的大鼠更具风险性，因为它们对高不确定性结果做出了更多选择。一系列非线性模型被拟合到个体大鼠的数据上，以阐明最能解释高不确定性选择和损失追逐行为个体差异的可能心理机制。模型表明，与未面对LDWs的大鼠相比，面对LDWs的大鼠在高不确定性结果后更倾向于表现出停留偏差。这些结果共同表明，LDWs获得了条件强化特性，鼓励持续冒险，并在先前的高风险决策后增加损失追逐。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
