Influence of Cognitive Variables in the Iowa Gambling Task

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze the influence of cognitive and personality variables in the Decision Making (DM) construct, evaluated by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). For this propose, a battery of neuropsychological tests was applied to 116 individuals of both genders between 18 and 35 years olds. The results showed that the IGT performance was not associated to the cognitive variables evaluated, only it has been found moderated relationship between working memory and DM. These outcomes suggest that DM seems to be an independent construct of the “cool” cognitive functions and could be influenced for the emotional or motivational aspects related to “hot” cognitive process. Finally, the DM process seems to be more associated to the ability to avoid punishment than the capacity of evaluate long term benefits.

Keywords

• Decision Making
• Hot Cognition
• Cool Cognition
• Avoid Punishment
• Neuropsychological Evaluation.