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Event-related potentials to outcome valence are modulated by the decision to explore or exploit

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Eunchan Na¹ (), Benjamin J. Dyson¹; ¹University of Alberta

Maintaining a balance between exploitation and exploration, also known as the explore-exploit dilemma, is the key to optimizing decisions in uncertain environments. While many studies have investigated the effect of the number of trials (ie, horizons) on the explore-exploit dilemma, little is known about the effects of response availability and its neurophysiological correlates. We investigated how exploitation (selecting the option with the highest reward expectancy), informative exploration (selecting less sampled options), and random exploration (decision noise) would be modulated during 4- and 6-response versions of the same game while measuring electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. The game provided two types of feedback: early feedback, providing information regarding positive (win) or negative (loss) outcome valence, and late feedback, providing information on outcome magnitude. At the behavioural level, exploitation increased post-win and as response availability decreased, random exploration increased post-loss and as response availability increased. Informative exploration was not modulated by either outcome valence or response availability. At the neurophysiological level, we observed larger amplitudes for feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 when participants explored and exploited, respectively, but only in response to early feedback. These results suggest that 1) increased response availability promotes random exploration while discouraging exploitation, and, 2) event-related potentials in response to outcome valence are modulated by our prior decision either to explore or exploit.

Topic Area: THINKING: Decision making