Environmental uncertainty and the advantage of impulsive choice strategies

Exercise recovers weight gain, but not increased impulsive choice, caused by a high-fat diet

A high-fat diet has negative effects on physical, neurological, and behavioral outcomes. One consistent finding is that a diet high in fat increases impulsive choice behavior-behavior that is linked to a wide range of other negative health behaviors. While the mechanism for this increase in impulsive choice is not well understood, exercise, with its well-known and many benefits, may serve as an effective and accessible way to combat increased impulsive choice associated with a high-fat diet. The goal of this work was to test this possibility. Rats were divided into four groups in a two-by-two factorial design: exercise and control diet, sedentary and control diet, exercise and high-fat diet, sedentary and high-fat diet. Rats in the exercise groups engaged in 30-min of forced, moderate intensity wheel-running exercise five days per week. Rats in the high-fat diet groups ate a diet high in fat. Impulsive choice was measured using a delay discounting task. Exercise prevented weight gain associated with the high-fat diet. Exercise also preserved relative motivation for food reinforcement. However, exercise did not prevent increases in impulsive choice observed for rats that consumed a high-fat diet relative to the rats that consumed the control diet. This work rules out several possible mechanisms by which a high-fat diet may increase impulsive choice behavior. It makes clear that exercise alone may not stave off increases in impulsive choice caused by a high-fat diet. Future work is necessary to uncover the underlying mechanism for this effect and discover interventions, perhaps ones that combine both physically and cognitively demanding activities, to improve health and behavior as it relates to decision making processes.

Navigating Uncertainty: The Role of Mood and Confidence in Decision-Making Flexibility and Performance

Dealing with uncertainty is a pivotal skill for adaptive decision-making across various real-life contexts. Cognitive models suggest that individuals continuously update their knowledge based on past choices and outcomes. Traditionally, uncertainty has been linked to negative states such as fear and anxiety. Recent evidence, however, highlights that uncertainty can also evoke positive emotions, such as surprise, interest, excitement, and enthusiasm, depending on one's task expectations. Despite this, the interplay between mood, confidence, and learning remains underexplored. Some studies indicate that self-reported mood does not always align with confidence, as these constructs evolve on different timescales. We propose that mood influences confidence, thereby enhancing decision flexibility-defined as the ability to switch effectively between exploration and exploitation. This increased flexibility is expected to improve task performance by increasing accuracy. Our findings support this hypothesis, revealing that confidence modulates exploration/exploitation strategies and learning rates, while mood affects reward perception and confidence levels. These findings indicate that metacognition entails a dynamic balance between exploration and exploitation, integrating mood states with high-level cognitive processes.

The association between uncertainty intolerance, perceived environmental uncertainty, and ego depletion in early adulthood: the mediating role of negative coping styles

Introduction

Uncertainty intolerance and perceived environmental uncertainty can influence an individual's emotions and behavioral responses. Previous research showed that high uncertainty intolerance and high perceived environmental uncertainty were both negatively associated with an individual's life satisfaction. We explored the interaction effects of uncertainty intolerance and perceived environmental uncertainty on ego depletion of early adulthood and its mechanisms.

Methods

Investigating 292 college students using an uncertainty intolerance scale, a perceived environmental uncertainty scale, a negative coping style questionnaire, and an ego depletion scale. The correlations among all variables were calculated using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, and then we used the PROCESS macro (model 8) in SPSS to test the conditional process model in the relationship between uncertainty intolerance and ego depletion.

Results

The results showed that the interaction terms of uncertainty intolerance and perceived environmental uncertainty were significantly associated with negative coping styles. Only in the high perceived environmental uncertainty situations, uncertainty intolerance was positively associated with negative coping styles, and negative coping styles were positively associated with ego depletion.

Discussion

In general, compared with perceived environmental uncertainty, participants' cognition towards environmental uncertainty was much more associated with individual's coping styles and psychological state, individuals with high uncertainty intolerance would face great stress and experience more emotional problems. Our results suggest that it is important for individuals' mental health to gain a sense of control in an uncertain environment and improve the tolerance of uncertainty. Future research needs to pay attention to the intervention strategy of decreasing uncertainty intolerance.