Investigation of risk taking behavior and outcomes in decision making with modified BART (m-BART)

Abstract

Responses to risky choices were collected and analyzed in a continuous, engaging and decomposable risk taking task; a slightly modified version of BART (Balloon Analog Risk Task [1]). Pupil dilation data throughout the experiment were collected and analyzed to understand participants' physiological expressions under risky choices. Participants were also administered a survey, prior to the experiment to monitor individual risk taking attitudes. A thorough analysis of responses indicated a dynamic system consisting of risk taking or aversive states. Participants' pupil dilation rates were predictable from this dynamical model abstracted from consecutive responses. These findings may lead to a model that fuses affective and cognitive aspects within risky uncertain decisions. Natural risk tendencies, extracted from the survey had no statistically significant effect on the results.