Post-loss speeding or post-win slowing? An empirical note on the interpretation of decision-making time as a function of previous outcome
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Differences in response time following previous losses relative to previous wins are robust observations in behavioural science, often attributed to an increased (or decreased) degree of cognitive control exerted after negative feedback, hence, post-loss slowing (or post-loss speeding). This presumes that the locus of this effect resides in the specific modulation of decision time following negative outcomes. Across two experiments, I demonstrate how the use of absolute rather than relative processing speeds, and the sensitivity of processing speeds in response to specific experimental manipulations (Experiment 1: win rate, Experiment 2: feedback), provide clarity as to the relative weighting of post-win and post-loss states in determining these behavioural effects. Both experiments show that the speeding or slowing of decision-time is largely due to the flexibility generated by post-win cognitive states. Given that post-loss speeding may actually represent post-win slowing, conclusions regarding the modulation of decision-making time as a function of previous outcomes need to be more carefully considered.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".