The Effect Of Arm Movements On Choice Deferral Under Differrent Levels Of Conflict

This research studied the choice deferral from the perspective of embodied cognition, with emphasis on discussing the effect of the arm movements on choice deferral under different levels of conflict. Based on previous researches, this study asked subjects to maintain arm movements and read and complete the decision-making task at the same time, and aimed at investigating the effect of unilateral and bilateral arm movements on choice deferral in the two experiments.In experiment1, the subjects were assigned randomly to arm flexion or arm extension condition, and were asked to maintain a unilateral arm movement while reading and completing decision-making tasks, in order to investigate the effect of unilateral arm movements on choice deferral under different levels of conflict. The results demonstrated that the level of conflict would affect individuals’choice deferral behavior, higher level of conflict resulted in more choice of deferral options. In addition, there was no significant difference in choice deferral between arm flexion or arm extension condition.In experiment2, the subjects were randomly assigned to the congruent (right-arm flexion and left-arm extension) and noncongruent condition (right-arm extension and left-arm flexion), and were asked to maintain bilateral arm movements to read and complete the decision-making task at the same time, in order to explore the effect of bilateral arm movements on choice deferral under different levels of conflict. The results demonstrated, that under the low level of conflict, had significant effect on choice deferral, and the subjects in noncongruent condition were more likely to choose to defer than congruent condition. Accordingly, the results also indicated that bilateral arm movements had marginally significant effect on decision tendency, the subjects in congruent condition was more apt to make a choice among current alternatives than noncongruent condition.Based on the comprehensive analysis of the experiment1and experiment2,this research suggested, that the congruence condition might affect choice deferral behavior, under the low level of. conflict,the subjects in noncongruent condition (right-arm flexion and left-arm extension) were more likely to defer than congruent condition(right-arm extension and left-arm flexion).