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The conjunction fallacy is a classical judgment bias that was argued to be a robust cognitive illusion insensitive to the positive effect of incentivization. We conducted a meta-analysis of the literature (n = 3276) and found that although most studies did not report a significant effect of incentivization, the results across studies show a significant positive effect for incentivization, d = 0.19, with an odds ratio of 1.40 for answering correctly when incentivized. There was no moderating effect of payoff size despite the differences in incentive value between studies. Additionally, the effect was relatively smaller when examining absolute differences in the probability of correct judgment instead of odds ratios, suggesting that it may be partly driven by studies with low baseline performance. These findings join those of other judgment-bias studies to suggest a small but nevertheless robust debiasing effect of incentivization., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Previous studies reported that autistic adolescents and adults tend to exhibit extensive choice switching in repeated experiential tasks. However, a recent meta-analysis showed that this switching effect was non-significant across studies. Furthermore, the relevant psychological mechanisms remain unclear. We examined the robustness of the extreme choice-switching phenomenon, and whether it is driven by a learning impairment, feedback-related aspects (e.g., avoiding losses), or alternatively a different information sampling strategy., Methods: We recruited an online sample of 114 US participants (57 autistic adults and 57 non-autistic). All participants performed the Iowa Gambling task, a four-option repeated choice task. Standard task blocks were followed by a trial block with no feedback., Results: The findings replicate the extreme choice switching phenomenon (Cohen's d = 0.48). Furthermore, the effect was found with no difference in average choice rates denoting no learning impairment, and was even observed in trial blocks with no feedback (d = 0.52). There was no evidence that the switching strategy of autistic individuals was more perseverative (i.e., that similar switching rates were used in subsequent trial blocks). When adding the current dataset to the meta-analysis, the choice switching phenomenon is significant across studies, d = 0.32., Conclusions: The findings suggest that the increased choice switching phenomenon in autism may be robust and that it represents a distinct information sampling strategy and not poor implicit learning (or a bias in the sensitivity to losses). Such extended sampling may underlie some of the phenomena previously attributed to poor learning., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Zeif et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Rationale: Methylphenidate (MPH) and mixed D,L-amphetamine salts (MASs; Adderall) were previously found to have unreliable effects on judgment and decision processes., Objective: We predicted that MPH and MASs have a specific effect of reducing heuristic responses, which should lead to increased performance on the cognitive reflection test (CRT). The CRT is considered to be a testbed for heuristic versus deliberative response modes., Methods: We recruited a sample of 15,361 individuals using the Prolific Academic crowdsourcing platform. From this initial pool, our final sample consisted of 294 participants (125 MPH users and 169 MASs users) who conformed to the study criteria and completed the experimental tasks. Tasks were performed on days where participants were either medicated or not, allowing to assess the effect of medication status., Results: There was a strong positive effect of taking MPH on CRT scores (Cohen's d = 0.40) which was not qualified by frequency of MPH usage, ADHD symptoms, and demographic factors. There was also a somewhat weaker effect for MASs (Cohen's d = 0.07). No effects of MPH and MASs were recorded for risk-taking and numeracy., Conclusions: The results indicate that MPH enhances decision-making in tasks where heuristic responses typically bias it., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) report difficulties in making routine decisions. Yet there is a controversy about whether their decision performance is impaired or enhanced compared to typically developing individuals. We focused on studies of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) where contrary arguments have been made in this regard. In a meta-analysis, we examined differences between high functioning individuals with ASD and controls in decision performance (choice of long-term advantageous options) and choice switching on the IGT. The analysis encompassed 14 studies involving 433 participants with ASD and 500 controls. The results showed virtually no difference in IGT performance between groups (d = 0.04), except for a slight disadvantage in the first block of trials for the ASD group (d = -0.16). We also found a non-significant trend towards increased choice switching in the ASD group (d = -0.37) that may be examined in future research. In sum, decision performance on the IGT is similar in individuals with ASD and controls, though their strategy may differ., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)