The emotional decision making in the situations of uncertainty

Abstract

This article analyses the capacity of healthy patients for decision making based on the mechanism of the emotional learning (Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis). The relation of this mechanism to the perception of the emotionally significant situations in real life and the use of emotions in cognitive control is estimated. The dependence of the emotional learning on parameters of the executive functions is considered. The influence of propensity to risk and impulsiveness on the decision making is analyzed. The following methods are used: the International Game Technology (IGT), the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the D-KEFS Color-Word Interference Test, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), the questionnaire “Impulsiveness 7” (I7). 95 people were involved in the study. The connection of the decision making in uncertainty which estimates with the International Game Technology (IGT), with the emotional processes is demonstrated. It is shown that the decrease of the regulatory functions, such as the inhibition of the irrelevant answers and the control of the result of their own actions, is connected to the decreasing of the capacity for decision making in uncertainty. The personal features (the interest to the complex problem solving and the focusing on the future) are connected with better decision making in uncertainty. By the persons with risk propensity the learning occurs later on the basis of emotional experience. High level of the capacity for planning and self-control is connected to the features of the emotional decision making.