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Scientific Reports, Nature. Oct 25, 2022

Top-down modulation impairs priming susceptibility in complex decision-making with social implications
Franco Agustín Bernal, Tomás Alves Salgueiro, Axel Brzostowski, Emilio Recart Zapata, Ayelén Carames, Juan Manuel Pérez, Damián Furman, Martín Graziano, Pablo Nicolás Fernández Larrosa.

Could social context variables prime complex decisions? Could top-down processes impair this priming susceptibility? Complex decisions have been mainly studied from economic and moral perspectives, and Dual Process Theories provide evidence of how these processes could be affected. To address these issues from a political perspective, online experiments were conducted. Participants (n = 252) were asked to choose a face from 4 options, each associated with different frequencies (repetition priming) or with phrases with different emotional valence (emotional priming), for an unspecified task (UST group) or an important task (IMT group). The most repeated face was chosen most in the UST group, and was associated with lower response times. Positive faces were equally chosen by both groups. To compare results in a more ecological situation, a social study was conducted during the 2019 Argentine Presidential Election, including online surveys (n = 3673) and analysis of news media mentioning candidates. The familiarity and trust to each candidate explained the voting-probability for most of them, as well as correlated with their frequency of mentions in the news, their positive associations, and election results. Our results suggest complex decision-making is susceptible to priming, depending on top-down modulation.
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SAN2022 Meeting. Oct 2, 2022

Time constraint increases susceptibility to repetition priming in complex decision-making
Tomas Alves Salgueiro, Axel Brzostowski, Ayelén Caramés, Pablo Nicolás Fernández Larrosa.

Complex Decision-Making (DM) usually involves processes that require a higher level of cognitive engagement, evidenced by a prolonged reflection over time. Previously, we conducted cognitive experiments under the hypothesis that greater exposure to a face (Repetition Priming, RP) would induce its preference in a task-dependent manner (top-down modulation). For this purpose, participants were randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups: 1) choosing a face for an important task (IT), or 2) without any specification (NS). Our previous results showed that IT decision was not susceptible to RP and lasted longer, regarding to NS results, supporting our hypothesis. But do these top-down mechanisms operate early or late in the DM process? To start answering this question, we designed a new experiment in which subjects had to choose with time constraint (TC; 5 or 3 seconds) on some trials and without on others (NC). When choosing in less than 5 seconds, IT group shows no evidence of susceptibility to RP, like in NC condition. However, when participants must choose within 3 seconds, IT group showed to be susceptible to RP (like NS group). If the top-down modulation occurs later, shortening the time available would disrupt this process, and this would be reflected in the results of group IT, showing differences between the two temporal conditions. Conversely, if the top-down mechanism operates earlier, there should be no difference. Our results support the former scenario.
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9th MBB Symposium by the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences & the MindBrainBody Institute. Mar 16, 2022

Ganador del Segundo MBB Poster Prize asignado a Pablo Nicolas Fernandez Larrosa.

Complex decision-making could be facilitated by social modulation through priming
Tomás Alves Salgueiro, Franco Agustín Bernal, Axel Brzostowski, María Ayelén Caramés, Emilio Recart Zapata, Damian Furman, Juan Manuel Perez, Pablo Nicolas Fernandez Larrosa.

Some decision-making (DM) processes require quick answers, while more complex decisions demand greater cognitive engagement. Under the hypothesis that frequent exposure to a stimulus (repetition priming) or its association with an emotional valence (emotional priming) could drive DM, online experiments were conducted. To compare results in a more ecological situation (Social Study), online social surveys were conducted during the 2019 Argentine Presidential Elections, as well as written media news were scraped to assess each candidate's mention frequency and sentiment analysis.
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9th MBB Symposium by the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences & the MindBrainBody Institute. Mar 16, 2022

Frequency and Emotional Priming Could Modulate Complex Decision-Making Processes Depending on Task Relevance
María Ayelén Caramés, Franco Agustín Bernal, Tomás Alves Salgueiro, Axel Brzostowski, Pablo Nicolas Fernandez Larrosa.

Complex decision-making processes (CDM) differ from simple ones because they require greater cognitive commitment, in which the precision of the response predominates over the reaction time (RT). Methods: Through online cognitive experiments, it was studied if CDM can be modulated by two different conditions: repetition and emotional priming. Faces were sequentially presented with different frequencies (1, 6 or 12 times in 20 repetitions) or with the same frequency (5 times each face) associated to one emotional content phrase (positive, negative or neutral). Subjects were aleatory separated into two analysis groups by asking them to choose one face among four faces to realize an important task (IT) or a non-specified task (NST). Results indicated that: 1. RT in IT is significantly longer than in NST; 2. Face with frequency 12 was significantly more chosen in NST; 3. Faces with positive phrases associated were significantly more chosen in both groups. These experiments raise the role of the task´s nature in a possible top-down mechanism modulating CDM. In this essay a third analysis group was evaluated by choosing faces to realize a not important task (NIT) replicating the same online experiments, comparing with a new NST group.
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XXXVI Annual Meeting of the Argentinian Society for Neuroscience Research. Oct 19, 2021

(E-Socials) Complex decision-making is facilitated by social modulation
Bernal, Franco Agustín; Alves Salgueiro, Tomás; Brzostowski, Axel; Caramés, María Ayelén; Recart Zapata, Emilio; Furman, Damian; Pérez, Juan Manuel; Fernandez Larrosa, Pablo Nicolas.

Section: Socio-environmental modulation of cognitive processes
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JFAI2021, II Jornadas de Fundamentos y Aplicaciones de la Interdisciplina. Apr 19, 2021

El proceso de toma de decisiones complejas podría ser primado por la repetición y por el contenido emocional con efectos a largo plazo
María Ayelén Caramés, Franco Agustín Bernal, Tomás Alves Salgueiro, Axel Brzostowski, Pablo Nicolas Fernandez Larrosa.

Algunos procesos de toma de decisiones (TD) requieren respuestas rápidas, mientras que las decisiones más complejas requieren un mayor compromiso cognitivo. Bajo la hipótesis de que la exposición frecuente a un estímulo o su asociación con una valencia emocional podría impulsar la TD, se llevaron a cabo experimentos cognitivos online, involucrando diferentes tareas en la computadora. Los experimentos consistieron en elegir un rostro (entre 4 opciones) después de haber sido presentados con diferentes frecuencias (1, 6 o 12 veces en 20 presentaciones) o la misma frecuencia (5 veces) pero asociado con frases positivas, negativas, neutrales o mixtas. Los participantes fueron divididos aleatoriamente en dos grupos experimentales: se le pidió al primer grupo que eligiera una cara sin ningunaespecificación (Tarea No Especificada, TNE); mientras que al segundo grupo se le pidió que eligiera una cara para una tarea importante (Tarea Importante, TI). Nuestros resultados mostraron: 1. El rostro repetido 12 veces fue significativamente más elegido que los demás rostros en el grupo TNE que en el grupo TI ; 2. El tiempo de respuesta fue significativamente mayor en el grupo TI que en TNE; 3. Los rostros con asociación positiva fueron significativamente más elegidos que los otros, sin diferencias entre los grupos ; y 4. Cuando se pidió que se eligieran rostros 24hrs después del primado, se observaron diferencias entre ambos grupos para el priming emocional pero no para el priming por repetición (aunque en ambos experimentos se vieron diferencias en cuanto a la memoria).Estos resultados apoyan nuestra hipótesis de que las decisiones complejas son vulnerables de modulación por priming por repetición y emocional (siendo el segundo más potente que el primero), con claras implicancias a nivel social.

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XXXV Annual Meeting of the Argentinian Society for Neuroscience Research. Oct 8, 2020

Frequency and Emotional Priming Could Drive Complex Decision Making
Franco Agustín Bernal, Tomás Alves Salgueiro, Axel Brzostowski, Pablo Nicolas Fernandez Larrosa.

Some decision-making (DM) processes require quick answers, while more complex decisions require greater cognitive engagement. Under the hypothesis that frequent exposure to a stimulus or its association with an emotional valence could drive DM, online cognitive experiments were conducted, involving different tasks on the computer. The experiments consisted of choosing a face (from 4 options) after being presented with different frequencies (1, 6, or 12 times over 20 presentations) or the same frequency (5 times) but associated with positive, negative, neutral, or mixed sentences. Two versions of the experiments were performed: the 1st group was asked to choose a face without any specification (Non-Specified task, NST); while the 2nd group was asked to choose a face for an important task (Important task, IT). Our results showed: 1. The 12th repeated stimulus (12) was significantly more chosen in the NST group [Factorial ANOVA: F(3, 292)=9,6498, p=,00000; post hoc LSD test: p<0.009 respect to other frequencies of NST and IT group]; 2. This priming was observed mainly when response time was fast; 3. The faces with a positive association were significantly more chosen than others, with no group differences [Factorial ANOVA:F(3, 332)=303,11, p=0,000; post hoc LSD test: p<0.000 positive association & other]. These results support our hypothesis, showing that emotional priming is more powerful than frequency one, as the latter depends on the task type and response time.
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