
AbstractBackgroundOutcome feedback which indicates behavioral consequences are crucial for reinforcement learning and environmental adaptation. Nevertheless, outcome information in daily life is often totally or partially ambiguous. Studying how people interpret this kind of information would provide important knowledge about the human evaluative system.MethodsThis study concentrates on the neural processing of partially ambiguous feedback, that is, either its valence or magnitude is unknown to participants. To address this topic, we sequentially presented valence and magnitude information; electroencephalography (EEG) response to each kind of presentation was recorded and analyzed. The event‐related potential components feedback‐related negativity (FRN) and P3 were used as indices of neural activity.ResultsConsistent with previous literature, theFRNelicited by ambiguous valence was not significantly different from that elicited by negative valence. On the other hand, theFRNelicited by ambiguous magnitude was larger than both the large and small magnitude, indicating the motivation to seek unambiguous magnitude information. The P3 elicited by ambiguous valence and ambiguous magnitude was not significantly different from that elicited by negative valence and small magnitude, respectively, indicating the emotional significance of feedback ambiguity. Finally, the aforementioned effects also manifested in the stage of information integration.ConclusionThese findings indicate both similarities and discrepancies between the processing of valence ambiguity and that of magnitude ambiguity, which may help understand the mechanisms of ambiguous information processing.
Adult, Male, INFORMATION, Feedback, Psychological, REWARD MAGNITUDE, SOCIAL ANXIETY, 610, UNCERTAINTY, DECISION-MAKING, event-related potential, Mental Processes, ambiguous feedback, feedback-related negativity, Humans, BRAIN, Evoked Potentials, Original Research, Science & Technology, OUTCOME EVALUATION, Neurosciences, P3, Electroencephalography, decision-making, Adaptation, Physiological, MEDIAL FRONTAL-CORTEX, STIMULI, TIME-ESTIMATION TASK, Female, Neurosciences & Neurology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Behavioral Sciences, Knowledge of Results, Psychological
Adult, Male, INFORMATION, Feedback, Psychological, REWARD MAGNITUDE, SOCIAL ANXIETY, 610, UNCERTAINTY, DECISION-MAKING, event-related potential, Mental Processes, ambiguous feedback, feedback-related negativity, Humans, BRAIN, Evoked Potentials, Original Research, Science & Technology, OUTCOME EVALUATION, Neurosciences, P3, Electroencephalography, decision-making, Adaptation, Physiological, MEDIAL FRONTAL-CORTEX, STIMULI, TIME-ESTIMATION TASK, Female, Neurosciences & Neurology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Behavioral Sciences, Knowledge of Results, Psychological
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