Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Framing decision options as gains or as losses affects how we evaluate those options. The current study assessedthe effects of gain- and loss-framing on the acquisition of outcome values across decisions and on the dynamics of computermouse responses to those decisions. In a series of 36 decisions per block, four arbitrary symbols were presented, two of whichwere assigned high points (e.g., 20) and two of which were assigned low points (e.g., 5). Participants (N=86) learned to choosehigh values and avoid low values when values were positive and to choose low values and avoid high values when they werenegative. Loss-framed outcomes (i.e., negative valence) were learned faster and more reliably. Response trajectories followingacquisition were slower, more curved and exhibited greater vacillation when choosing between two poor outcomes. Theseeffects were stronger when poor outcomes were negatively valenced.