Towards the development of behavioural measures of impulsivity: Influencing subjects’ response style in a multiple-choice visual discrimination task

In an attempt to reduce guessing during multiple-choice testing, the effects of different payoff matrices were observed in this research. It was hypothesized that a penalty for incorrect answers and the existence of the alternative “no decision” have a significant effect on reducing guessing by subjects. Furthermore, this effect should become stronger the higher the risk of an incorrect response and therefore the higher the risk of losing points is. An experimental design with four different payoff matrices and a repeated measurement design with cross over (for the payoff for “no decision”) was realized. A visual discrimination task including three steps (one power condition, two speed conditions), with each item containing three choices plus the “no decision” option, was used. The results showed that the percentage of correct answers is influenced by the different payoff for the choice of “no decision”. Only in groups where “no decision” paid off with 0, was it chosen more often, however, the percentage for correct answers is lower in these groups. The results also indicate that subjects are able to adjust their behaviour according to the different payoff matrices.