"Delay discounting and elasticity of demand for cigarettes in light and moderate smokers"
The study that Kirsten is working on for her honors thesis investigates discounting and elasticity of demand in smokers on four measures. Delay, probability and work tasks, as well as a random-ratio task that asks participants for their preference of money versus cigarettes. The study consists of 12 "light" smokers and 12 "moderate" smokers who participate in two seven-hour sessions. The first session is a "practice" session and the participants are simply given a pack of their preferred brand of cigarettes after completing the tasks and stay in the lab for six hours. In the second session, the "real" session, a question is selected at random and the participant is given their preference on the question. The data shows the amount of discounting and elasticity that the participants have in their consumption of nicotine/cigarettes. The hypothesis is that light smokers will show higher elasticity and greater discounting than the moderate smokers.
"Effects of prolonged exposure to gambling"
For her honors thesis, Erika is studying the effects of prolonged gambling on risk-taking behavior. To do this, she is looking at the differences in preferred probability choices between two groups; non-gamblers versus gamblers. These groups were randomly selected based on the individual's responses to the Gamblers Anonymous Questionnaire. All participants completed a 30 minute behavioral task on the computer. This task required that the participants choose between two options that differ in their chance of acquiring a specified amount of money. For example, choice 1 stated a 50% chance or greater of winning a small specified amount of money, with a chance of losing a specified amount, while choice 2 allows the participant to bet from $0.10 to $1.00 (their choice), with a chance of either doubling their bet or losing it all. The percentages that accompany each choice changed throughout the session. The hypothesis was that the group of gamblers would make more risky choices overall, but that both groups would show an increase in risk-taking behavior from the onset of the task to the completion. Sex differences will also be looked at in terms of risk-taking behavior.