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. 2016 Feb 12;3:83–95. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2015.12.006

Table 1.

Effects of acute and chronic stress on decision making.

Category Study Results Decision-making paradigm
Reward Bogdan & Pizzagalli, 2006 Hyposensitive to reward Signal detection task
Elman et al., 2009 Hyposensitive to reward Wheel of fortune–type task
Ossewaarde et al., 2011 Hyposensitive to reward Monetary incentive delay task
Lighthall et al., 2012 Greater reward collection and faster responses in males
Less reward collection and slower responses in females
Balloon analogue risk task
Nikolova et al., 2012 Hyposensitive to reward Number guessing paradigm
Porcelli et al., 2012 Hyposensitive to reward# Card guessing task
Oei et al., 2014 Hyposensitive to reward Masked sexual stimuli
Montoya et al., 2014 Hyposensitive to reward Monetary incentive delay task
Lewis et al., 2014 Hypersensitive to reward magnitude Pavlovian conditioning task
Punishment and threat Petzold et al., 2010 Reduced use of negative feedback Probabilistic learning task
Robinson et al., 2013 Increased aversive prediction error signals The “What's in the box?” task
Cavanagh et al., 2011 Better punishment learning Probabilistic learning task
Gullo and Stieger, 2011 Increasing sensitivity to losses Iowa Gambling Task
Roelofs et al., 2007 Vigilant to the angry faces Angry and happy faces task
van Wingen et al., 2011 Increased reactivity to threat Angry and happy faces task
Akinola and Mendes, 2012 Heightened sensitivity to potential danger Shooting targets task
Jackson et al., 2006 Facilitate fear conditioning in males
Inhibit fear conditioning in females
Fear conditioning
Stark et al., 2006 Facilitate fear conditioning in males
Inhibit fear conditioning in females
Fear conditioning
Tabbert et al., 2010 Enhance fear responses in females Fear conditioning
Merz et al., 2012 No effect on fear conditioning/extinction Fear conditioning
Klucken et al., 2013 Weak gene and stressful life events interaction Fear conditioning
Merz et al., 2013a Facilitate fear conditioning in men and women taking oral contraceptives Fear conditioning
Merz et al., 2013b Impaired fear conditioning in men and facilitated fear conditioning in women taking oral contraceptives Fear conditioning
Antov et al., 2013 Attenuate fear conditioning after 2nd wave and facilitate fear conditioning after 1st wave in men Fear conditioning
Merz et al., 2014 Attenuates fear retrieval in men Fear conditioning
Risk Preston et al., 2007 Risk seeking in males
Risk averse in females
Iowa gambling task
van den Bos et al., 2009 Risk seeking in males
U shape in females
Iowa gambling task
Mather et al., 2009 Risk averse in elderly Iowa gambling task
Zhang et al., 2011 Poorer performance only in formerly heroin-dependent patients Iowa gambling task
Starcke et al., 2008 Risk seeking Game of Dice Task
Pabst et al., 2013b Risk seeking Game of Dice Task
Pabst et al., 2013a Reduced reflection effect in loss framing Game of Dice task
Gathmann et al., 2014 Risk seeking Game of Dice Task
Lighthall et al., 2009 Risk seeking in males
Risk averse in females
Balloon analogue risk task
Kandasamy et al., 2014 Risk averse Financial choices in the field
Porcelli and Delgado, 2009 Enhanced reflection effect Financial decision-making task
Cueva et al., 2015 Risk seeking Asset trading game
Haushofer et al., 2013 No effect on delay discounting Delay discounting task
Cognitive control Raio et al., 2013 Impaired emotion regulation Fear learning
Schwabe and Wolf, 2009 More habitual choices Instrumental learning
Schwabe et al., 2011 More habitual choices Instrumental learning
Dias-Ferreira et al., 2009 More habitual choices Instrumental learning
Soares et al., 2012 More habitual choices Instrumental learning
Kassam et al., 2009 More habitual choices Anchor and adjustment task
Maier et al., 2015 More immediate gratification Food choice task
Seehagen et al., 2015 More habitual responses in infants Instrumental learning task.
Margittai et al., 2015a More intuitive thinking cognitive reflection test
Prosocial tendency Takahashi et al., 2007 Give more Dictator's game
Vinkers et al., 2013 Give less Dictator's game
von Dawans et al., 2012 Share more Trust game
McGinley et al., 2010 Greater anonymous prosocial tendency
Less costly prosocial tendency
Survey
Starcke et al., 2012 Less utilitarian Moral dilemmas
Youssef et al., 2012 Less utilitarian Moral dilemmas
Starcke et al., 2011 More egoistic Everyday Moral Decision-Making
Leder et al., 2013 Reduced emtalizing Beauty contest game
Smeets et al., 2009 Enhanced metalizing in males
Reduced metalizing in females
Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition
Margittai et al., 2015b Increased generosity towards close but not distant others Social discounting task

Animal studies.

#Another possibility is hypersensitivity to punishment.