The Impact Of Decision Time And Working Memory Load On The Risk Decision Framework Effect

Versky and Kahneman(1981)introduced the term framing effect for a decision maker's representation of a decision problem including acts outcomes and contingencies associated with different alternatives.Framing effect is made up on the basis of prospect theory,which is a typical case of the descriptive decision theory,but violate the formal decision theory.The study is based on the Dual-Process Theories,which further reveals the internal mechanism of framing effect.In Dual-process Theories,the decision making process is divided into two systems,one is rapid,automatic and based on heuristic system,another is slow,based on working memory capacity and analysis system.From the perspective of Cognitive Resources Theories and Dual-process Theories,decision time and working memory load have some similar mechanism when interference with the decision-making process.Previous research about the time pressure and working memory load on framing effect has got some achievements,however,the framing effect is belong to the analysis system or the heuristic system has been debated,and so far there is not a model established.Through two experiments,one is on the dimension of decision-making time and another is on the dimension of working memory load,the study explores the cognitive mechanism of framing effect,and gives preliminary models about the two processes.Previous research has shown that,time pressure has the two-edged effect to the improvement of the risk seeking in risk decision making,moderate anxiety caused by appropriate time pressure would raise the enthusiasm of the individual to analyze problems.The first experiment puts the participants into three situations to complete the frame decision task,:the time pressure condition,without time pressure condition and deliberate analysis condition.After the the frame decision task,the participants are asked to complete the time pressure scale and state-anxiety scale to measure their time pressure.The results show that there is a interaction between the decision-making time and the frame type at the 0.05 level.In the first experiment,as decision-making time increasing,the framing effect presents a variation of no significant-significant-no significant.The time pressure and deliberate analysis weak the framing effect,.The second experiment puts working memory load into the frame decision task,puts the participants into three situations:no working memory load,medium and high working memory load,ask the participants to complete the working memory task and the frame decision task at the same time.The results show that there is a interaction between the working memory load and the frame type at the 0.05 level.In the second experiment,as working memory load increasing,the framing effect presents a variation of significant-no significant-significant.In the situation of no working memory load and high working memory load,framing effect are not affected,and in moderate working memory load,frame effect is weakened.This suggests that a moderate amount of working memory load activates the subjects' enthusiasm of trying to analyze problems,and when there is no working memory load,subjects' enthusiasm is weaker,when working memory load is high,which is easy to produce larger stress and anxiety,whicn would interfere with subjects' rational thinking.The two experiments illustrate that the framing effect is a kind of individual spontaneous decision error to a certain extent,when encounters moderate interference,which activates the individual rational thinking,would break the pattern of frame and weaken the framing effect.According to the results and discussions of the study,the following conclusions are listed as bellow:(1)There's an significant interaction between decision-making time and frame type.In general,the framing effect of risk decision-making is significant;Time pressure would cause moderate anxiety,then improve the participants' enthusiasm to analyze problems so as to weaken the framing effect;Deliberate analysis would inspire the participants' rational thought,thus,weaken the framing effect.(2)There's an significant interaction between working memory load and frame type.When there is no working memory load,framing effect is significantly;Appropriate working memory load would enhance the subjects' rational thinking,so as to weaken the framing effect;High working memory load would cause too much stress and anxiety of the subjects,interfere with the individual thinking activity,then framing effect can not be affected.(3)To some extent,the framing effect is a kind of natural decision deviation,in the general case,it tends to be heuristic processing.