The Event-related Potentials Study Of Regulatory Focus And Frame Type Affecting Risk Decision-making

BackgroundRisky decision-making refers to the process of weighing subjective expectancy value of different options and then making decision facing the uncertain situation with corresponding and known probability options in solving problems or dealing with things.Regulatory focus as a principle of motivation,not only affect people's cognitive evaluation but also influence judgment and choices.Framing type still plays an important role in the risk decision-making studies,but the research about the relationship among regulatory focus,framing type and risk decision-making is less.Based on this,this study investigated the characteristics of different type of regulatory focus doing the risk decision making under different framework and explored the mechanism of neural electrophysiological mechanism.Objectivesto investigate and explore the effects of regulatory focus and frame type on risk decision making and the neurophysiological mechanisms of the individuals with different regulatory focus.MethodsThe first experiment: 61 university freshmen in accordance with experiment were selected by Regulatory Focus Questionnaire(27 for promotion regulatory,34 for prevention focus).Using the three factors mixed experimental design:2(regulatory focus type: promotion regulatory,prevention focus)×2(frame type: positive frame and negative frame)×2(risk preference: risk seeking,risk aversion).The experiment and reaction data were rendering and recording by E-prime2.0 programming.The second experiment: 30 university freshmen in accordance with experiment were selected by Regulatory Focus Questionnaire(15 for promotion regulatory,15 for prevention focus).Using the three factors mixed experimental design:2(regulatory focus type: promotion regulatory,prevention focus)×2(frame type: positive frame and negative frame)×2(risk preference: risk seeking,risk aversion)×3(hemisphere position: left,middle,right).The experiment were rendering by E-prime2.0 programming,the brain waves were recoding and saving by Neuroscan electroencephalograph.ResultsResults of Experiment 1: In risk decision reaction time,the main effect of risk preference is significantly,F(1,59)=27.612,P<0.01,?2= 0.319;the interaction among regulatory focus,frame type and the risk preference is also significant,F(1,59)=4.439,P<0.05,?2=0.070;and further simple effect analyses shows the difference of different regulatory focus is not significant.In risk decision reaction number,the main effect of risk preference is significantly,F(1,59)=12.894,P < 0.01,?2=0.179;the interaction among regulatory focus,frame type and the risk preference is also significant,F(1,59)=7.168,P<0.01,?2=0.108;and further simple effect analyses shows under the positive frame,the reaction number to risk seeking in the promotion focus individuals was significant more than the prevention focus,F(1,59)=6.599,P<0.05,?2=0.101,the opposite is for the reaction number to risk aversion,F(1,59)=7.445,P<0.01,?2 =0.112.Results of Experiment 2: In the composition of N1 amplitude on the prefrontal cortex: the main effect of the regulatory focus is not significant,F(1,28)=1.347,P>0.05,?2=0.046;the interaction of frame type,hemisphere position and regulatory focus is significant,F(2,56)=4.467,P<0.05,?2=0.138,further simple effect found that under the negative frame,prevention focus individuals induced N1 amplitude in left hemisphere is more negative than promotion focus,and the difference reaches only marginally significant,F(1,28)=5.281,P<0.05,?2=0.159.another the interactions are not significant(Fs<2).In the composition of N1 amplitude on the frontal cortex: the main effect of the regulatory focus is not significant,F(1,28)=3.020,P>0.05,?2= 0.097,the interaction of frame type,hemisphere position and regulatory focus is significant,F(2,56)=3.521,P<0.05,?2=0.112,further simple effect found that under the negative frame,prevention focus individuals induced N1 amplitude in left hemisphere is more negative than promotion focus,F(1,28)=5.281,P<0.05,?2=0.159;the interaction of risk preference,hemisphere position and regulatory focus is significant,F(2,56)=3.166,P=0.050,?2=0.102,further simple effect found that under the negative frame,only in left hemisphere prevention focus individuals induced N1 amplitude is more negative than promotion focus,F(1,28)=4.233,P<0.05,?2=0.131.In the composition of P3 amplitude on the frontal cortex: the main effect of the regulatory focus is significant,F(1,28)=6.352,P<0.05,?2=0.185,another interactions is not significant(Fs<2).Conclusions(1)Regulatory Focus,frame type and risk preference influence risk decision together.(2)In the initial information process,regulatory focus with frame type or risk preferences,affects the decision-making process.(3)In the later stages of information process,regulatory focus plays an important role to the decision-making,meanwhile the influence can be showed by the activated levels by different hemisphere.