Nichole Renee Lighthall

Initial visual impressions guide judgment and decision-making in social contexts, and social cues, such as facial trustworthiness, may bias choices by influencing individuals to prioritize appearance over actual behavioral outcomes. Key challenges for research in this field include clarifying the extent to which decision-making and learning under uncertainty are affected (1) by facial cues of trustworthiness vs. untrustworthiness, (2) by the congruence vs. incongruence of face-based visual cues and behavioral outcomes, and (3) in a social relative to a non-social decision context. This study used the Social Iowa Gambling Task (S-IGT), an adaptation of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Extending traditional decision-making paradigms by systematically integrating several novel aspects, the S-IGT features: 1) the experimental manipulation of facial cues perceived as trustworthy vs. untrustworthy and 2) the incorporation of decision options paired with congruent (CS-IGT) vs. incongruent (IS-IGT) social cues; and was used here in combination with 3) a non-social/neutral control condition (the standard IGT). Across 558 participants, we found that initial performance in the CS-IGT was higher than in the other two task conditions, yet participants’ learning progress diminished over time in the CS-IGT. These findings suggest that while social cues of facial trustworthiness may support early decision-making, they also may encourage reliance on initial impressions over feedback-driven exploration, thus crucially influencing choice and learning trajectories under uncertainty in social contexts. The results further highlight the complex role of visual facial and behavior-based information congruence vs. incongruence in dynamic social decision environments.

Humans frequently make decisions that involve repeated interactions under uncertainty in everyday life. A constellation of cognitive biases drive such decisions. To investigate the extent to which these biases influence decision making by altering how values are integrated in choices, we developed a novel paradigm—the Florida-And-Georgia (FLAG) gambling task. In the FLAG task, participants chose between a deck, which yields variable outcomes, and a sure-thing offer. This approach allows us to model value integration as influenced by both learning processes (e.g., primacy-recency bias) and key factors drawn from Prospect Theory, including sensitivity to outliers and loss aversion. Our findings on 170 young adults revealed that individuals underweight outliers for both gains and losses in their decision making and were biased by recent outcomes; but there was no evidence of loss aversion. The FLAG task strives to strike a balance between experimental control and ecological validity, providing insights into the cognitive processes involved in decision making. In closing, we discuss future directions for the FLAG task and its potential societal and clinical applications.

Trust-related impressions and behavior are influenced by behavioral and non-behavioral (e.g., visual) cues. Similarly, nonsocial cues of trustworthiness (e.g., color cues like red or green, symbols such as warning signs or checkmarks) can influence behaviors associated with trust and distrust in memory and choice tasks. It is unclear, however, whether such social and nonsocial visual cues of trustworthiness have similar effects on behavior over iterative experiences and on post-task associative memory. To address these gaps, the Multi-Round Trust Game was used to determine effects of visual cues of trustworthiness on trust-related decision-making in social versus nonsocial economic game contexts. “Trustees” were represented by visual cues of trustworthiness (i.e., trustworthy and untrustworthy-looking faces, respectively). Social and nonsocial visual cues with comparable perceived trustworthiness yielded similar biasing effects on initial investments and investments over repeated interactions. However, social relative to nonsocial cues differentially influenced investment behavior with relatively more subtle visual cue differences (e.g., nonemotional facial characteristics versus positive/negative scenes). Additionally, social and nonsocial post-game memory was generally more distinctive, particularly for trustees who had shown untrustworthy behavior during the game. Extending Attribution and Betrayal Aversion theories, these findings suggest that while social and nonsocial visual cues can have similar effects on trust-related cognition and behavior, social relative to nonsocial cues affect behavior via more subtle visual differences, and their influence on post-interaction memory exceeds effects on trust-related behavior. These results highlight the privileged status of social information in dual-process models and support the critical role of intuitive evaluability in shaping behavior and memory across diverse trust-relevant contexts.

Background: Depression is prevalent among older adults and is known to negatively affect balance, ultimately leading to falls. However, few studies have investigated the effect of depression on static balance metrics beyond postural sway distance and area of older adults without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Aims: To investigate if postural sway distance, sway area, medial-lateral (ML) sway range, anterior-posterior (AP) sway range, and center-of-pressure (COP) sway speed variability differed between non-cognitively impaired older adults with minimal-to-no depression (Minimally Depressive group) and mild-to-severe depression (Mildly-to-Severely Depressive group). Methods: A total of 204 community-dwelling older adults were included. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), MCI using the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS), and static balance metrics using the Balance Tracking System (BTrackS). Mann-Whitney U tests determined differences between groups. Results: Sway area, AP sway range, and ML sway range were significantly greater in the Mildly-to-Severely Depressive group than the Minimally Depressive group (p = 0.010, p = 0.016, and p = 0.031, respectively). Sway distance (p = 0.445) and COP sway speed variability (p = 0.193) were not significantly different between groups. Discussion: The findings revealed greater sway area, as well as greater ranges in the AP and ML directions, in the Mildly-to-Severely Depressive group when compared to the Minimally Depressive Group. Reduced concentration and affected postural stabilization mechanisms driven by depression may have attributed to these results. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for further understanding of how static balance metrics, such as directional sway, are affected by depression, thereby creating interventions tailored to individual’s postural sway characteristics to help reduce fall risk and improve balance. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05778604).

Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent and costly health conditions in the United States. Previous work has demonstrated that chronic pain impacts cognition and behavior. However, the impact of chronic pain on daily decisions is less well-known. This narrative review identified and synthesized findings from a literature search that yielded 18 peer-reviewed, experimental, cross-sectional studies on the effects of chronic pain on different decision-making outcomes. According to the literature, the effects of chronic pain on decision-making are evidenced by 1) reduced decision performance, 2) increased risk-taking and delay discounting, 3) altered sensitivity to outcomes, and 4) reduced cognitive flexibility and learning. Chronic pain effects on decision-making also vary by individual factors such as sex/gender, age, and affective and social factors. Guided by these findings, current limitations and future directions in the field are discussed.

Older adults represent the fastest growing demographic of cannabis users, and they endorse cannabis use for a variety of reasons including modulation of chronic pain, mental health symptoms, and sleep concerns. However, current evidence leaves questions of efficacy unanswered among these groups. Goals of the present study were to examine the hypothesis that medical cannabis (MC) use will, at the daily level, predict lower pain, depression, anxiety, and improved sleep. A final sample of 106 MC users were recruited nationwide (ages 55-74, 66.67% female, 82.86% white). A fully within-subject multilevel structural equation model was conducted with use patterns and symptomology broken into four temporal epochs. MC use, operationalized as subjective intoxication (Epoch 1), averaged across the day was used to predict subsequent pain, anxiety, and depression levels (Epoch 2), which were then used to predict sleep that night (Epoch 3), then subsequent pain, anxiety, and depression the following day (Epoch 4) prior to initiation of MC use.Results: Subjective intoxication predicted lower post-use pain, anxiety, and depression. Subjective intoxication is related to lower anxiety and better sleep the following night. These findings provide evidence of momentary improvements in pain, anxiety, depression, and indirect benefits for sleep quality. In combination with other findings, the results advance our understanding of the efficacy and limitations of MC among older adults. Findings are limited by MC measurement and sample homogeneity (primarily White, non-Hispanic female). Future research should seek to further measurement of use and corresponding effects and examine expectancy effects in aging clinical populations.

Background: Older adults engage in increased amounts of sedentary behavior (SB), which can result in a significant decline in muscle function and overall health. An understanding of the motivational driving factors that lead older adults to engage in SB can help to create effective intervention programs. Objective: This study aimed to determine the association between prevention and promotion focus with SB in older adults, as well as compare these associations with two factors (ie, age and BMI) that are commonly known to have an association with SB among older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 93 community-dwelling older adults with a mean age of 74.98 (SD 6.68) years. Prevention and promotion focus were both assessed using the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire. Correlation analysis was performed to determine the associations between prevention focus, promotion focus, age, and BMI with SB. Anderson-Darling tests confirmed nonnormal data distributions for all factors (except age); therefore, Spearman rank correlation was used to determine correlations between factors. Comparative analysis of significant correlations was performed using Fisher Z transformation. Results: Prevention focus had the greatest statistically significant correlation with SB (ρ=0.296; P=.004), followed by BMI (ρ=0.204; P=.049). Both age (ρ=0.116; P=.27) and promotion focus (ρ=0.002; P=.99) had statistically insignificant correlations with SB, indicating no associations. The correlation between prevention focus and SB did not significantly differ from the correlation between BMI and SB (P=.51). Conclusions: Prevention focus was found to have a weak, but significant positive association with SB in older adults. Although age and BMI have been found to have an association with SB in previous literature, age was not associated with SB in this study, while BMI had a significant but relatively weaker association with SB than that with prevention focus. However, the association found between BMI and SB did not statistically differ from the association found between prevention focus and SB. These findings suggest that older adults could be driven to engage in increased amounts of SB due to having a dominant prevention focus, which revolves around thoughts of safety and avoiding negative consequences. The recognition of this association has the potential to aid in developing intervention programs that could promote shifting from prevention to promotion focus, thereby reducing SB in older adults.