Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience

The relationship between anxious and depressive traits and exploration behavior has been examined in several studies with mixed results. Across two studies, our results suggest that worrying may be a causal factor linking anxious and depressive traits to increased exploration behaviour. The first study compared exploration behavior on a risky and a safe version of a multi-armed bandit task. We measured a range of traits implicated in anxiety and depressivity and used computational modeling to assess potential task strategies. We found traits related to worrying to be associated with increased exploration behavior, particularly in the risky version of the task. The second study used only the risky version of the multi-armed bandit task and a psychotherapy-based intervention to reduce worries. This experimental reduction in worries resulted in the expected decrease in exploration behavior. These results suggest that worrying may be a causal mechanism connecting anxious and depressive traits to increased exploration behavior, particularly when there are risks involved.