Abstract

Introduction Decision-making is one of the most critical components of people's lives. It involves cognitive factors, which are responsible for processing the stimuli present in the task, remembering past experiences, and assessing the possible consequences that emotional decisions can have. So far, there are no studies of this nature in Ecuador, so this research seeks to establish the characteristics of the Ecuadorian population. With the results obtained, we expect to gain insight into the way this population handles decisions in daily life. Objective To relate decision-making to behavioral regulation and metacognition in a sample of Ecuadorian men. Methods We used a quasi-experimental design. We recruited 33 male subjects from the general population. We evaluated decision-making through the experimental Iowa Gambling Task. Behavior regulation and metacognition were assessed with the Executive Func-tion Behavior Classification (adult version). Results The main result was that, in the index of behavior regulation, decision-making is related to change and emotional control. In the metacognition index, it is related to working memory, task organization, and planning and organization. We found that the partic-ipants tend to make risky decisions at the beginning of the task, but as it progresses, participants make less risky decisions. Conclusions The implicit learning of the test operation allows the participants to assign emotional values to the results obtained when choos-ing a particular deck that takes into account past experiences, thus making it possible to anticipate consequences. The results are novel in that the relationship between an experimental behavior pattern linked to risky and non-risky decisions and its association with different executive functions is analyzed through the application of a questionnaire.