engleski

Feedback-Related Negativity Investigation of Description and Ambiguity Effects

Outcomes framed in terms of gains are usually considered more favorable than equal ones framed as losses. Differences in effects of framing on evaluations of certain and risky monetary deals were investigated in the present research. Additionally, event related potential (ERP) technique was used to examine analogy in evaluative processing between framed and objective gains and losses. Compared to gains, losses and ambiguity elicit a negative deflection in an ERP waveform, feedback-related negativity (FRN). Our experiment (N=17) consisted of 2 separate tasks. Participants first evaluated favorability of certain and risky outcomes. Following evaluations, outcomes were collected into final winnings in an EEG recording session task. All the outcomes resulted in objectively positive or neutral reward. Some outcomes, however, remained ambiguous and did not include information about the magnitude of the reward. No framing effect on evaluations of known outcomes was present. Responses to ambiguous outcomes, however, indicated significant framing effect. ERPs revealed no FRN differences related to gain and loss descriptions. On the other hand, ambiguity resulted in FRN independent from framing condition. Absence of framing effects in both FRN and evaluations between framed outcomes with known magnitudes could be indicative of outcome processing unbiased by description. The observed FRN associated with reward magnitude related ambiguity suggests an unexpectedly profound effect on outcome processing. Framing effect consistent responses to ambiguous outcomes dissociated from FRN suggest that other cognitive processes might be involved in behavior typical for framing effect.

framing effect; attribute framing; ambiguity; feedback-related negativity

nije evidentirano