Effects of Arousal and Salience on Decision Making

Effects of Arousal and Salience on Decision Making Master of Arts, 2023 Aalim Makani Psychology Toronto Metropolitan University According to Mather and Sutherland’s (2011) arousal-biased competition theory (ABC theory), arousal increases attention to high-priority stimuli (e.g., visually salient products) while reducing attention to lower-priority stimuli (e.g., less visually salient products). As a result, arousal increases the selectivity of information processing. While studies in the domains of attention, memory, and perceptual learning have found evidence for arousal-biased competition, how arousal interacts with priority or salience to influence risky decision making has not been studied to date. In the current study, participants completed a risky choice task in which we introduced a priority manipulation using perceptual salience. Eye tracking and pupillometry data were collected. Contrary to our expectations, results revealed no arousal-related selectivity suggesting that the scope of ABC may not include decision-making and may be limited to cognitive processes such as learning and memory. Keywords: arousal-biased competition, risky choice, emotion, pupillometry, eye tracking