Un nuovo modello di Iowa Gambling Task. La correlazione tra memoria, emozioni e presa di decisione

This article proposes an experimental approach to the issue of the relation between unconscious and rational elements with regard to individual decision- making processes. The problem draws on Damasio (1994), whose model counters the alleged lack of explanatory capability displayed by the theory of rational choice. In fact, according to Damasio, the latter does not include the problems arising from decisions regarding the social and personal sphere of an individual. In these situations, decision-making relies on similar experiences occurred in the past, and is thus affected by emotions as well as cognitive processes—i.e. the way stimuli are perceived, processed, stored and subsequently retrieved (by memory). Both emotions and cognitive processes constitute relevant physiological constraints to decision- making; hence, Damasio postulates the existence of such a somatic marker when decisions are made. In order to understand somatic marker as a condition of decision-making, the experiment draws on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) experimental paradigm. Within a laboratory environment, IGT allows observing the correlation between decision-making and somatic marker (measured in terms of cutaneous conductance). Accordingly, a new experiment is proposed in four versions: each of them constitutes a variation of two parameters—either the way payoff is managed in order to determine different success conditions for the participant, or the way feedback is more or less rationally conveyed to her. Following the results, Damasio’s thesis is only partially confirmed: on the one hand, participants display irrational behaviour (e.g.: they are heavily affected in their decision-making when rewards are higher); on the other hand, their successful performance is enhanced when they obtain increasingly rational feedbacks on their activity. Consequently, experimental results are framed in the context of the debate between Damasio and his critiques (Maya, Mc Clelland, 2004; Rolls, 1999, 2000; Fum, Stocco, 2004).