The present work aims to test whether a single session intervention alters ambiguity aversion, both in terms of people's decision making and their brain responses to ambiguous choices.
In this trial, participants will be randomized to one of two single session interventions (SSI). They will complete a decision making task before and after the SSI to measure their behavioral and brain responses to ambiguity, all on the same day. They will also complete a brief measure of hopelessness before and after the SSI. The main analysis will compare changes in ambiguity aversion before and after the interventions. Participants will also be asked to complete questionnaires before completing the task and SSI. The questionnaires will be about the participant's emotions and symptoms of depression and anxiety, personality, and avoidance/tolerance of uncertainty.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
140
Digitally/computer administered 30-minute self-guided intervention for adults ages 25-60
Digitally/computer administered 30-minute self-guided intervention for adults ages 25-60
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
RECRUITINGBeck Hopelessness Scale-4 (BHS-4)
The BHS-482 is a four-item self-report scale that will be used to assess hopelessness before and after the experimental intervention (scale assesses hopelessness "right now, in this moment") to determine whether the intervention was effective in eliciting change in a clinically meaningful construct. It has good psychometric properties. Participants will complete the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS-4) before and after the intervention as a manipulation check that the single session intervention (SSI) "worked" in the event that the other primary outcomes exhibit resistance to change.
Time frame: 1 hour
Behavioral ambiguity aversion
Computational modeling will be used to extract two parameters indicative of behavioral ambiguity aversion (AA) from a risk and ambiguity task completed once before and once after the intervention. This results in two variables per participant: one which indicates categorical AA (i.e., their tendency to choose the unambiguous choice regardless of the amount of ambiguity present) and one which indicates continuous AA (i.e., how the amount of ambiguity influences people's choice).
Time frame: 1 hour
Event-related potential responses to ambiguous choices
From EEG data collected during the risk and ambiguity task, event-related potentials (ERPs)-time-locked electroencephalogram signals with millisecond resolution-will be extracted to yield one variable per participant indicating mean brain activity to ambiguous choices. Pilot data and small prior studies have consistently found an attenuated P300-like component (albeit later than usual, around 350-500ms) to ambiguous relative to unambiguous choices similar to those on this task.
Time frame: 1 hour
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