Date of Award
2025
Department
Psychology
Advisor(s)
Rachelle Yankelevitz
Second Advisor
Paul Harris
Third Advisor
Richard Lewin
Abstract
Human decision making involves weighing probabilistic outcomes and uncertainty alongside the magnitude of potential gains and losses. Delay discounting refers to a perceived decline in the present value of a reward as the delay to acquisition increases. Impulsivity can be reflected by an individual's preference for smaller, immediate reward compared to larger, delayed reward. Experimental manipulation of tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) have been introduced to evaluate individual sensitivity to risk in monetary decision-making scenarios. In the current study, we compared two versions of the IGT, one with original magnitudes and one with high magnitudes. We proposed that a change from the original to high magnitude version of the IGT would cause a shift in preference away from advantageous choices and towards disadvantageous choices. We also aimed to see if IGT performance was correlated to impulsivity on the delay discounting task and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Results of this study replicated that when the magnitude of reward increases, impulsivity decreases on the delay discounting task. In the IGT the original and high magnitude tasks did not differently impact choices. Performance was not correlated across tasks. This study thus plays an important role in examining multiple behavioral economic factors which relate to impulsiveness, risk-taking and financial behavior in times of economic uncertainty.
Recommended Citation
Latty, Samuel C., "Impulsivity and Investment Risks: A Behavioral-Economic Analysis of Magnitude Effects in Decision-Making" (2025). Psychology. 1.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors-in-the-major-psychology/1
