Iowa Gambling Task - Critiques of The Iowa Gambling Task

Critiques of The Iowa Gambling Task

Although the IGT has achieved prominence, it is not without its critics. Criticisms have been raised over both its design and its interpretation. Published critiques include:

• A paper by Dunn, Dalgliesh and Lawrence

• Research by Lin, Chiu, Lee and Hsieh, who argue that a common result (the "prominent deck B" phenomenon) argues against some of the interpretations that the IGT has been claimed to support.

• Research by Chiu and Lin, the "sunken deck C" phenomenon was identified, which confirmed a serious confound embedded in the original design of IGT, this confound makes IGT serial studies misinterpret the effect of gain-loss frequency as final-outcome for Somatic marker hypothesis.

• A research group in Taiwan utilized an IGT-modified and relatively symmetrical gamble for gain-loss frequency and long-term outcome, namely the Soochow Gambling Task (SGT) demonstrated a reverse finding of Iowa Gambling Task. Normal decision makers in SGT were mostly occupied by the immediate perspective of gain-loss and inability to hunch the long-term outcome in the standard procedure of IGT (100 trials under uncertainty). Richard L. Peterson in his book, Inside the investor’s brain, considered the serial findings of SGT may be congruent with the Nassim Taleb’s suggestion on some fooled choices in investment.