Attentional Filter Training but Not Memory Training Improves Decision-Making

Marlen Schmicker, Patrick Müller, Melanie Schwefel, Notger G Müller, Marlen Schmicker, Patrick Müller, Melanie Schwefel, Notger G Müller

Abstract

Decision-making has a high practical relevance for daily performance. Its relation to other cognitive abilities such as executive control and memory is not fully understood. Here we asked whether training of either attentional filtering or memory storage would influence decision-making as indexed by repetitive assessments of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT was developed to assess and simulate real-life decision-making (Bechara et al., 2005). In this task, participants gain or lose money by developing advantageous or disadvantageous decision strategies. On five consecutive days we trained 29 healthy young adults (20-30 years) either in working memory (WM) storage or attentional filtering and measured their IGT scores after each training session. During memory training (MT) subjects performed a computerized delayed match-to-sample task where two displays of bars were presented in succession. During filter training (FT) participants had to indicate whether two simultaneously presented displays of bars matched or not. Whereas in MT the relevant target stimuli stood alone, in FT the targets were embedded within irrelevant distractors (bars in a different color). All subjects within each group improved their performance in the trained cognitive task. For the IGT, we observed an increase over time in the amount of money gained in the FT group only. Decision-making seems to be influenced more by training to filter out irrelevant distractors than by training to store items in WM. Selective attention could be responsible for the previously noted relationship between IGT performance and WM and is therefore more important for enhancing efficiency in decision-making.

Keywords: Iowa Gambling Task; decision-making; distractor inhibition; filter training; working memory.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study design. Memory Training (MT) consists of trials with memory storage demand. Filter Training (FT) trials were designed to train selective attention. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was performed during a break between the first and the second 100 trials.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic design of the bar paradigm.(A) Subjects had to remember (MT) or (B) compare (FT) the direction of the bars in either the cued color (with distractors) or independent from the color (without distractors).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Increase in working memory (WM; MT) and filtering (FT) training. Mean values and standard errors of correct responses (A) and reaction times (B) are visualized.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Increase in IGT gain during the training week. Mean values and standard errors for all days (1–5) and both training groups (FT, MT) are visualized. *p < 0.05.

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