Decision-making and memory: an investigation on the recollection of a moral dilemma
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Date
06/09/2022Author
Helin, Carolane Loren
Metadata
Abstract
Individuals inevitably face situations where they have to choose between
several options with uncertain future outcomes. This decision-making process can
occur in various contexts such as getting the COVID vaccine, voting in a referendum,
changing electricity provider, buying or renting a house, etc. It is, therefore, not
surprising that decision-making has been the focus of a wide range of fields, including
economics, philosophy, marketing, neurosciences and psychology (Johnson &
Busemeyer, 2010).
In cognitive psychology, there is a consensus around the idea that decision-making is highly related to memory (Fellows, 2018). The relationship between
decision-making and memory is thought to be bi-directional, where both cognitive
functions have a mutual impact (Tremel et al., 2018). However, empirical research has
mainly investigated the effect of memory on decision-making. The impact of decision-making on memory has yet to be fully characterised (Murty et al., 2015).
Previous research has suggested that decision-making may influence specific
aspects of memory, such as learning and forgetting (Murty et al., 2015; Murty et al.,
2019). This thesis investigates the effect of decision-making on memory through the
lens of learning and forgetting. Chapter 1 presents the development of a longitudinal
experimental paradigm eliciting decision-making and memory in a set of three
experiments - Experiments 1a, 1b, 2 and 3. Experiment 1 describes the retention of a
standardised piece of prose (Logical memory Story C subtest from Wechsler Memory
Scale -- fourth edition; Wechsler, 2009) under normal forgetting and retrieval practice
(a learning strategy that enhances long-term retention) with a delay of up to one
month. Experiment 1a illustrates the forgetting curve of Story C over time. Experiment
1b shows how the retention of Story C is enhanced under retrieval practice.
Experiment 2 analyses the benefit of retrieval practice on the retention of Story C and
a dilemma story. These results suggest that the dilemma story is more difficult to
encode, as it has lower immediate and delayed retention than Story C. However, the
difference in retention between the two stories remains constant over time - the stories
are forgotten to the same extent. Experiment 3 compares the percentage of moral
decision types (i.e., deontological or utilitarian) provided for a set of popular dilemma
stories. The results reveal that the Nobel Prize dilemma has the most even split in
chosen option for decision. From these three studies, I developed an experimental
paradigm that concomitantly manipulates decision-making and measures memory
retention.
Chapter 3 presents two experiments focusing on the effect of decision-making
and moral decision types on forgetting. Experiment 4 focuses on the retention of the
dilemma story following a deontological decision, a utilitarian decision, or an unrelated
choice (control). The results suggest that decision-making and moral decision types
do not influence memory retention after a day.
Experiment 5 further investigates the
impact of moral decision types on memory retention over a month. The results
replicate the absence of an effect found in Experiment 4. Chapter 3 concludes that
decision-making may not systematically influence memory, regardless of moral
decision types.
Chapter 4 explores the role of learning in the relationship between decision-making and memory. Experiment 6 focuses on the effect of decision-making and moral
decision types on memory retention as a function of retrieval practice and forgetting.
This experiment aims to test whether learning can change the impact of decision-making on memory. The results revealed that decision-making does not impact
forgetting regardless of moral decision types and retrieval practice.
Chapter 5 concludes and discusses the research findings. Overall, my research
does not provide evidence of an impact of decision-making on episodic memory. The
discussion acknowledges the limitations of the current thesis. Then, explanations for
the consistent lack of effects observed in the thesis are considered. Finally, I discuss
theoretical and methodological implications and future directions.