Effect of novelty on gain and loss preferences in the context of risk

According to prospect theory, people are more sensitive to the possibility of losing a given amount of money than they are to the possibility of winning that same amount when presented with a mixed gain/loss gamble. In this experiment, we examine the effect of novelty on gain and loss preferences in the context of risk, with a behavioral portion looking at the effects of novel stimuli on risk seeking behavior, and an fMRI imaging portion examining various brain activity levels in certain regions.

Prior research has examined the effects of novelty on the reward system, the effects of aging on mesolimbic novelty processing, and the role of novelty in explicit memory formation. No study has looked at the effect of novelty on gain and loss preferences in risk scenarios.

I coded the experiment in E-Prime and then recruited twenty healthy volunteers for the behavioral study. Each subject was first shown a face that was either novel or non-novel and asked to identify the gender. The subject was then presented with a gamble option with chance of either winning or losing a specified amount of money and asked to choose to accept or reject the gamble. Results suggest that exposure to a novel stimulus is associated with a statistically significant likelihood that the subject would accept the presented gamble option.

Of the twenty behavioral volunteers, fifteen were recruited for the fMRI imaging study. Preliminary imaging results indicate three main areas of interest: the posterior cingulate, the dorsal putamen, and the amygdala. Brain activity levels in these areas vary with reaction times to novel and non-novel stimuli, the Temperament and Character Inventory novelty-seeking questionnaire scores, and gain and loss amounts.