Catherine A. Cole

The Orbitofrontal Cortex, Real-World Decision Making, and Normal Aging

Abstract:  The present series of three studies aims at investigating the hypothesis that some seemingly normal older persons have deficits in reasoning and decision making due to dysfunction in a neural system which includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortices. This hypothesis is relevant to the comprehensive study of aging, and also addresses the question of why so many older adults fall prey to fraud. To our knowledge, this work represents the first of its kind to begin to identify, from an individual‐differences perspective, the behavioral, psychophysiological, and consumer correlates of defective decision making among healthy older adults. Our findings, in a cross‐sectional sample of community‐dwelling participants, demonstrate that a sizeable subset of older adults (approximately 35–40%) perform disadvantageously on a laboratory measure of decision making that closely mimics everyday life, by the manner in which it factors in reward, punishment, risk, and ambiguity. These same poor decision makers display defective autonomic responses (or somatic markers), reminiscent of that previously established in patients with acquired prefrontal lesions. Finally, we present data demonstrating that poor decision makers are more likely to fall prey to deceptive advertising, suggesting compromise of real‐world judgment and decision‐making abilities.

Cross-National Logo Evaluation Analysis: An Individual-Level Approach

The universality of design perception and response is tested using data collected from ten countries: Argentina, Australia, China, Germany, Great Britain, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, and the United States. A Bayesian, finite-mixture, structural-equation model is developed that identifies latent logo clusters while accounting for heterogeneity in evaluations. The concomitant variable approach allows cluster probabilities to be country specific. Rather than a priori defined clusters, our procedure provides a posteriori cross-national logo clusters based on consumer response similarity. To compare the a posteriori cross-national logo clusters, our approach is integrated with Steenkamp and Baumgartner’s (1998) measurement invariance methodology. Our model reduces the ten countries to three cross-national clusters that respond differently to logo design dimensions: the West, Asia, and Russia. The dimensions underlying design are found to be similar across countries, suggesting that elaborateness, naturalness, and harmony are universal design dimensions. Responses (affect, shared meaning, subjective familiarity, and true and false recognition) to logo design dimensions (elaborateness, naturalness, and harmony) and elements (repetition, proportion, and parallelism) are also relatively consistent, although we find minor differences across clusters. Our results suggest that managers can implement a global logo strategy, but they also can optimize logos for specific countries if desired.

Poor Decision Making Among Older Adults Is Related to Elevated Levels of Neuroticism

BackgroundA well-studied index of reasoning and decision making is the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT possesses many features important to medical decision making, such as weighing risks and benefits, dealing with unknown outcomes, and making decisions under uncertainty.PurposeThere exists a great deal of individual variability on the IGT, particularly among older adults, and the present study examines the role of personality in IGT performance. We explored which of the five-factor model of personality traits were predictive of decision-making performance, after controlling for relevant demographic variables.MethodsOne hundred and fifty-two healthy cognitively intact adults (aged 26–85) were individually administered the IGT and the NEO Five-Factory Inventory.ResultsIn the older adults, but not the younger, higher NEO neuroticism was associated with poorer IGT performance.ConclusionsOur findings are discussed in the context of how stress may impact cognitive performance and cause dysfunction of neural systems in the brain important for decision making.

Forced-Choice Recognition Tests: A Critical Review

Abstract Recognition measures are commonly used to test the memory effects of advertisements. Unfortunately, there is a significant amount of response bias (particularly false claiming) involved with the simple “yes”/“no” type recognition tests currently being used by the advertising researchers. Recently a different procedure, called forced-choice recognition test, has been suggested as a means of removing the response bias. The present paper briefly reviews the past attempts made by the advertising researchers to secure a valid measure of recognition memory and then evaluates the efficacy of forced-choice recognition tests as a means of eliminating response bias in an advertising context.

A neuropsychological test of belief and doubt: damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases credulity for misleading advertising

We have proposed the False Tagging Theory (FTT) as a neurobiological model of belief and doubt processes. The theory posits that the prefrontal cortex is critical for normative doubt toward properly comprehended ideas or cognitions. Such doubt is important for advantageous decisions, for example in the financial and consumer purchasing realms. Here, using a neuropsychological approach, we put the FTT to an empirical test, hypothesizing that focal damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) would cause a “doubt deficit” that would result in higher credulity and purchase intention for consumer products featured in misleading advertisements. We presented 8 consumer ads to 18 patients with focal brain damage to the vmPFC, 21 patients with focal brain damage outside the prefrontal cortex, and 10 demographically similar healthy comparison participants. Patients with vmPFC damage were (1) more credulous to misleading ads; and (2) showed the highest intention to purchase the products in the misleading advertisements, relative to patients with brain damage outside the prefrontal cortex and healthy comparison participants. The pattern of findings was obtained even for ads in which the misleading bent was “corrected” by a disclaimer. The evidence is consistent with our proposal that damage to the vmPFC disrupts a “false tagging mechanism” which normally produces doubt and skepticism for cognitive representations. We suggest that the disruption increases credulity for misleading information, even when the misleading information is corrected for by a disclaimer. This mechanism could help explain poor financial decision-making when persons with ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction (e.g., caused by neurological injury or aging) are exposed to persuasive information.

Effects of Age, Sex, and Neuropsychological Performance on Financial Decision-Making

The capacity to make sound financial decisions across the lifespan is critical for interpersonal, occupational, and psychological health and success. In the present study, we explored how healthy younger and older adults make a series of increasingly complex financial decisions. One-hundred sixteen healthy older adults, aged 56–90 years, and 102 college undergraduates, completed the Financial Decision-Making Questionnaire, which requires selecting and justifying financial choices across four hypothetical scenarios and answering questions pertaining to financial knowledge. Results indicated that Older participants significantly outperformed Younger participants on a multiple-choice test of acquired financial knowledge. However, after controlling for such pre-existing knowledge, several age effects were observed. For example, Older participants were more likely to make immediate investment decisions, whereas Younger participants exhibited a preference for delaying decision-making pending additional information. Older participants also rated themselves as more concerned with avoiding monetary loss (i.e., a prevention orientation), whereas Younger participants reported greater interest in financial gain (i.e., a promotion orientation). In terms of sex differences, Older Males were more likely to pay credit card bills and utilize savings accounts than were Older Females. Multiple positive correlations were observed between Older participants’ financial decision-making ability and performance on neuropsychological measures of non-verbal intellect and executive functioning. Lastly, the ability to justify one’s financial decisions declined with age, among the Older participants. Several of the aforementioned results parallel findings from the medical decision-making literature, suggesting that older adults make decisions in a manner that conserves diminishing cognitive resources.

Changing a drug from Rx to OTC status: the consumer behavior and public policy implications of switch drugs

The rapid proliferation of drugs being switched from prescription (Rx) to over‐the‐counter (OTC) status within the USA has raised a number of important consumer behavior and public policy concerns. The following issue served as the focus of our research. Given the increasing assortment and widespread availability of Rx to OTC switch drugs, how might consumers’ health care preferences change? That is, what factors influence whether a consumer is more likely to visit their physician rather than self‐medicate symptoms of heartburn and indigestion with a new switch drug?

Analyzing the effect of information format and task on cutoff search strategies

An analytical framework is presented that specifies optimal search strategies when consumers use cutoff decision rules when information is formatted by brand or attribute and when the task is either screening alternatives or choosing the first acceptable alternative. The results show that formatting effects determine optimal processing strategies for screening but not for satisficing choice tasks. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the validity of the analytical results. Most results were validated. However, under certain conditions, consumers use brand processing in choice tasks even when the analytical model predicts attribute processing. Results from a follow-up study suggest that this deviation occurs because brand processors have different subjective search costs than attribute processors.

Advertising Copy Testing in Print Media

Copy testing continues to be an important, controversial, expensive and involving area of advertising research. This article reviews four categories of print copy testing methods: learning based measures, affective measures, choice measures and physiological measures. Emphasis is given to how well each measure relates to possible advertising objectives and how reliable, sensitive and valid each measure is. Additional topics covered include whether to test only parts of, or the entire ad and context effects.