Instructional control in choice tasks: the relation between type of schedule and relative expected values

Abstract

The present work aims improve our understanding of the boundaries of instructional control. It does so by solving contradictory results obtained on two different fields: Three studies conducted on the description-experience gap field, showing that instructions are neglected when personal experience is available, and several others conducted on the experimental analysis of behavior paradigm getting to the opposite conclusion. Two factors were studied: the type of schedule, and the relative expected values between options. The present work showed that (1) positive evidence of instructional control was found in a choice task with probability schedules and different expected values between options; (2) negative evidence of instructional control was found in a choice task with VI schedules and similar expected values between options; and (3) these results, together with previous research, suggest that relative expected values are a fundamental factor on understanding the presence of instructional control in choice tasks. We conclude that the relevance of this factor relies on its capacity to make participants' decisions easier: all else being equal, adding descriptions enables participants to better discriminate optimal behavior in choice tasks.