The influence of reward value on memory and decision making

• Author / Creator

  Madan, Christopher R.

• In our everyday lives we often make decisions based on our prior experiences, whether it be choosing to park without putting money in the meter or deciding what to buy as a gift for a loved one. Inevitably, our decisions in the present are informed by our memories of experiences past. In this dissertation I report the results from a series of studies examining how reward value influences memory, and how these reward-memory effects can in turn bias decision making such that people are generally more risk seeking for relative gains than relative losses. Specifically, these studies examined how previously learned reward values can subsequently influence memory for items, how more extreme reward outcomes influence decisions from experience, and how memory biases can drive risk preference in decision making. Together these convergent lines of research represent a theoretical advance in our understanding of memory and decision making.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Memory
  • Reward value
  • Decision-making

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3GQ6R96R

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.