Anticipation and Choice Heuristics in the Dynamic Consumption of Pain Relief
Figure 1
Trial structure of the experiment.
Participants entered an experimental run of 60 trials, on which they could expect to receive mildly painful electric shock stimuli on each trial, referred to as painful episodes. By default participants could expect to receive a five second stimulus with 14 brief shocks on each trial, however they were provided with a budget of relief at the outset of the experiment, 2400 “milligrammes” (mg) in total. Each 10mg of relief consumed reduced the expected number of shocks in the stimulus train by one, and was hence insufficient to relieve all the shocks in the session. At the start of each trial a screen indicated the number of remaining trials and the remaining supply of relief. Participants then had the opportunity to indicate how much relief they wished to consume on that trial, up to a maximum of 120mg. The relief was then effective on the immediately subsequent painful episode.