The effects of positive and negative affect on Iowa gambling task performance

In normal populations, males typically perform better than females on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Previous studies have shown that deliberation of moral dilemmas during the IGT significantly improves the performance of females to the level of males and that smelling aromas during the IGT significantly reduces the performance of males to the level of females. Nevertheless, both moral dilemmas and aromas have an affective quality. In the present study, to test whether affect influenced IGT performance, participants viewed positive, negative, or neutral pictures during the IGT task. The results of this study showed the affective pictures had no effect on IGT performance. Males outperformed females and females chose one particular card type, as is typically the case. Thus, previous effects of dilemmas or aromas are not likely due to emotional factors