TY - JOUR
T1 - Increases in Emotional Intelligence After an Online Training Program Are Associated With Better Decision-Making on the Iowa Gambling Task
AU - Alkozei, Anna
AU - Smith, Ryan
AU - Demers, Lauren A.
AU - Weber, Mareen
AU - Berryhill, Sarah M.
AU - Killgore, William D.S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by a USAMRAA grant to WDSK (W81XWH-09-1-0730).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - Higher levels of emotional intelligence have been associated with better inter and intrapersonal functioning. In the present study, 59 healthy men and women were randomized into either a three-week online training program targeted to improve emotional intelligence (n = 29), or a placebo control training program targeted to improve awareness of nonemotional aspects of the environment (n = 30). Compared to placebo, participants in the emotional intelligence training group showed increased performance on the total emotional intelligence score of the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, a performance measure of emotional intelligence, as well as subscales of perceiving emotions and facilitating thought. Moreover, after emotional intelligence training, but not after placebo training, individuals displayed the ability to arrive at optimal performance faster (i.e., they showed a faster learning rate) during an emotion-guided decision-making task (i.e., the Iowa Gambling Task). More specifically, although both groups showed similar performance at the start of the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining, the participants in the emotional intelligence training group learned to choose more advantageous than disadvantageous decks than those in the placebo training group by the time they reached the “hunch” period of the task (i.e., the point in the task when implicit task learning is thought to have occurred). Greater total improvements in performance on the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining in the emotional intelligence training group were also positively correlated with pre- to posttraining changes in Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores, in particular with changes in the ability to perceive emotions. The present study provides preliminary evidence that emotional intelligence can be trained with the help of an online training program targeted at adults; it also suggests that changes in emotional intelligence, as a result of such a program, can lead to improved emotion-guided decision-making.
AB - Higher levels of emotional intelligence have been associated with better inter and intrapersonal functioning. In the present study, 59 healthy men and women were randomized into either a three-week online training program targeted to improve emotional intelligence (n = 29), or a placebo control training program targeted to improve awareness of nonemotional aspects of the environment (n = 30). Compared to placebo, participants in the emotional intelligence training group showed increased performance on the total emotional intelligence score of the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, a performance measure of emotional intelligence, as well as subscales of perceiving emotions and facilitating thought. Moreover, after emotional intelligence training, but not after placebo training, individuals displayed the ability to arrive at optimal performance faster (i.e., they showed a faster learning rate) during an emotion-guided decision-making task (i.e., the Iowa Gambling Task). More specifically, although both groups showed similar performance at the start of the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining, the participants in the emotional intelligence training group learned to choose more advantageous than disadvantageous decks than those in the placebo training group by the time they reached the “hunch” period of the task (i.e., the point in the task when implicit task learning is thought to have occurred). Greater total improvements in performance on the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining in the emotional intelligence training group were also positively correlated with pre- to posttraining changes in Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores, in particular with changes in the ability to perceive emotions. The present study provides preliminary evidence that emotional intelligence can be trained with the help of an online training program targeted at adults; it also suggests that changes in emotional intelligence, as a result of such a program, can lead to improved emotion-guided decision-making.
KW - Iowa Gambling Task
KW - emotion-guided decision-making
KW - emotional intelligence
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U2 - 10.1177/0033294118771705
DO - 10.1177/0033294118771705
M3 - Article
C2 - 29699472
AN - SCOPUS:85047438420
SN - 0033-2941
VL - 122
SP - 853
EP - 879
JO - Psychological reports
JF - Psychological reports
IS - 3
ER -