Schematic of the method used in the experiments.

<p>(A) On <i>experience</i>-based choice trials, participants were faced with a choice between two of four possible colored doors. Two doors always led to losses, and the other two always led to gains. Their choice was immediately followed by a gain or loss of a fixed or variable number of points throughout Experiment 1 and during the pre-training trials only in Experiment 2. (B) On <i>description</i>-based choice trials, participants were presented with verbal and pictorial descriptions of different choices between fixed or variable number of points. No feedback was given until all trials in a run were complete to prevent participants from learning from their experience.