Time Pressure Affects the Risk Preference and Outcome Evaluation.

It is ubiquitous that food delivery riders do not have unlimited periods of time for deliberation to make decisions. Time pressure plays a significant role in decision-making processes. This study investigated how time pressure affected risk preference and outcome evaluation through behavioral and electrophysiological responses during decision-making. Participants finished a simple gambling task under three different time constraint conditions (high/medium/low). Behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) data were recorded during the experiment. The results showed that the decision time of people was shorter under high time pressure than under medium and low time pressures. People tend to make more risky choices when under high time pressure. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude was smaller in the high time pressure than in medium and low time pressure conditions. These findings provided evidence that time pressure has an impact on the risk decision-making process.

Effects of mental fatigue on risk preference and feedback processing in risk decision-making.

Mental fatigue is a common phenomenon in modern people, especially after a long period of mental work. Individuals frequently have to make critical decisions when in a mentally fatigued state. As an important and complex cognitive function, risk decision-making might be influenced by mental fatigue, which is consequent with increased distraction and poor information processing. However, how mental fatigue shapes individuals' decision-making remains relatively unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of mental fatigue on risk decision-making performance and risk-preference in a simple gambling task, using both behavioral methods and event-related potential techniques. Forty young adults were divided into a mental fatigue group and a no-fatigue group and participated in the experiments. Results showed that individuals with mental fatigue tended to be more risk-averse than those without fatigue when facing risk options. The P300 amplitudes were smaller and FRN amplitudes were larger in the mental fatigue group than in the no-fatigue group. These findings provide insight into a relationship between mental fatigue and risk decision-making, from the perspective of the neurological mechanism.

Line-of-sight in operating a small unmanned aerial vehicle: How far can a quadcopter fly in line-of-sight?

A field study was conducted to investigate the probabilities of human participants to detect a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a certain distance. A Phantom 4 quadcopter was remotely controlled to hover at one of the 32 pre-determined locations in the air. Thirty-two participants on the ground were requested to judge if they could see the quadcopter on a four-point scale: 1. definitely yes, 2. probably yes, 3. probably no, and 4. definitely no. The participants also responded whether they could hear the quadcopter on the same four-point scale. Logistic regression models were established to estimate the probability of detecting the quadcopter in the air, both visually and auditory. When navigating a quadcopter flying away from the operator, the sound stimulus diminished and then disappeared earlier than that of the sight of the quadcopter. The results of the study indicated that the probability of visual detection of the quadcopter at a distance of 300 m was approximately 0.3. When adopting a 50% probability of visual detection and the "definitely or probably yes" criterion, the estimated distance of line-of-sight was 245 m. The corresponding visual angle was 0.065°. The information in this study is valuable for drone operators, operator training institutes, and drone designers. The aviation authorities may also consider revising the codes or regulations for small UAV operation based on our findings.

Electrophysiological responses of feedback processing are modulated by MAOA genotype in healthy male adolescents.

A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene is closely related to aggression. Although previous studies suggested that impaired ability of feedback processing might be associated with aggressive behaviour, studies concerning the MAOA gene-related aggression rarely focused on the link between MAOA gene and feedback processing. We therefore sought to investigate the effect of MAOA genotype on electrophysiological responses of feedback processing in 72 healthy male adolescents during a simple monetary gambling task. Feedback processing was investigated by measuring the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P300 as electrophysiological markers. We observed a decreased electrophysiological response of the loss-gain difference waves from 250 to 350 ms (dFRN) in individuals with the lower activity alleles (MAOA-L) during the task, an effect that was driven primarily by the considerably altered response to monetary gains. The reduced dFRN in MAOA-L group might indicate poor ability to learn from feedback, which is followed by adjusting future behaviour. And MAOA-L carriers exhibited lower P300 compared with subjects with higher activity alleles (MAOA-H), which suggested fewer attentional resources were allocated to feedback processing. In addition, MAOA-L carriers demonstrated higher aggression and the aggression were inversely correlated with dFRN across two groups; further analyses suggested that dFRN mediated the MAOA genotype-aggression relationship. Consequently, we concluded that it might be the altered feedback processing that makes MAOA-L carriers more vulnerable to aggressive behaviour.

Dysfunctional feedback processing in adolescent males with conduct disorder.

Abnormalities in neural feedback-processing systems may play a role in the development of dysfunctional behavior in individuals diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD). The present study investigated the relation between CD adolescents and feedback processing by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) in a single outcome gambling task, which included reward valence (loss and gain) and reward magnitude (10 and 50cents) as outcomes. N2 and P3 components have been established as effective indicators in studies of behavioral disinhibition, reward processing, and decision-making. Eighteen adolescent males (age: 13-17years) diagnosed with CD and 19 healthy age-matched male controls were recruited. Compared to healthy controls, CD individuals exhibited reduced N2 amplitudes in response to loss condition. There was also a significant decreased P3 amplitude in all conditions. The amplitudes of P3 were negatively correlated with impulsivity scores across both groups, and the amplitudes of N2 were positively correlated with impulsivity scores across both groups. Our findings suggest that adolescents with CD may be impaired in neural sensitivity feedback and the processing of environmental cues compared to healthy controls. Moreover, N2 and P3 may be reliable indices to detect different sensitivity in reward and punishment feedback processing.