Emotion and Cognition in the Iowa Gambling Test

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate how personality and affect influence the results of the Iowa Gambling Test, and to discuss the implications for the somatic marker concept. Affect and personality, as measured by the PANAS and BIS/BAS scales, were correlated to Iowa Gambling Test results for fifty-seven volunteers. In contrast with previous studies, no significant correlations between Iowa Gambling Test performance and personality or affect dimensions were found. This could be due to the relatively low number of participants, or to the fact that the Iowa Gambling Test was web-based. Also, it is proposed that somatic markers are an integral part of an emotion-cognition system for decision-making, and that it is difficult to study decision-making without taking the whole system into account. This integrative view on emotion-cognition offers new perspectives on both the Iowa Gambling Test and decision-making in general.