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Strategy selection during exploratory behavior: sex differences

Catherine Brandner

Judgment and Decision Making, 2007, vol. 2, pages 326-332

Abstract: This study was designed to assess sex-related differences in the selection of an appropriate strategy when facing novelty. %This %basic behavior has been assumed to support more elaborate behaviors %like spatial abilities. A simple visuo-spatial task was used to investigate exploratory behavior as a specific response to novelty. % that trades off risk and reward. An The exploration task was followed by a visual discrimination task, and the responses were analyzed using signal detection theory. %, which approaches the subject's behavior as a form of decision-making. During exploration women selected a local searching strategy in which the metric distance between what is already known and what is unknown was reduced, whereas men adopted a global strategy based on an approximately uniform distribution of choices. Women's exploratory behavior gives rise to a notion of a secure base warranting a sense of safety while men's behavior does not appear to be influenced by risk. This sex-related difference was interpreted as a difference in beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain events influencing risk evaluation.

Keywords: exploration; spontaneous strategies; sex differences; decision-making. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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