Somatic Markers and Frequency Effects: Does Emotion Really Play a Role on Decision Making in the Iowa Gambling Task?

The role of the frequency of wins and losses in the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara, A., Damasio, A., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. 1994. Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50, 7–15) was investigated in 2 experiments manipulating the long-term expected value of the decks participants had to choose from. The first experiment adopted the typical setting of the task in which every card selection was followed by a monetary win, while losses happened only occasionally. In the second experiment every decision led to a loss while the contingent event was represented by wins. In both experiments the long-term expected value of the decks did not seem to influence the participants’ choices that were, however, sensitive to the frequency with which the decks produced the contingent event. Immediate gains or losses associated with the decks exerted their effect on the first few choices only. The relevance of these findings for Damasio's Somatic Markers Hypothesis are discussed.