Sleep deprivation alters choice strategy without altering uncertainty or loss aversion preferences.
Sleep deprivation alters decision making; however, it is unclear what specific cognitive processes are modified to drive altered choices. In this manuscript, we examined how one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) alters economic decision making. We specifically examined changes in uncertainty preferences dissociably from changes in the strategy with which participants engage with presented choice information. With high test-retest reliability, we show that TSD does not alter uncertainty preferences or loss aversion. Rather, TSD alters the information the participants rely upon to make their choices. Utilizing a choice strategy metric which contrasts the influence of maximizing and satisficing information on choice behavior, we find that TSD alters the relative reliance on maximizing information and satisficing information, in the gains domain. This alteration is the result of participants both decreasing their reliance on cognitively-complex maximizing information and a concomitant increase in the use of readily-available satisficing information. TSD did not result in a decrease in overall information use in either domain. These results show that sleep deprivation alters decision making by altering the informational strategies that participants employ, without altering their preferences.
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore ; SINAPSE Institute, National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore ; Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Singapore.
O'Dhaniel A
OA
Mullette-Gillman
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore.
Yoanna A
YA
Kurnianingsih
Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Singapore ; Division of Social Sciences, Yale-NUS College Singapore, Singapore.
Jean C J
JC
Liu
ambiguity; decision making; loss aversion; preferences; risk; sleep deprivation; strategy