Effects of Arousal and Salience on Decision Making Bachelor of Science (Hons.), University of Toronto, 2019 A Thesis Presented to Toronto Metropolitan University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Program of Psychology Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2023 © , 2023

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