Toma de decisiones, planificación y flexibilidad cognitiva: Caracterización de un grupo de adultos con sobrepeso

Abstract

Objective: To describe the performance of overweight adults compared to normal-weight adults in the areas of decision-making, planning, and cognitive flexibility. Method: A non-experimental and cross-sectional study was carried out. A total of 763 adults aged 18 to 30 years (M = 23.7, SD = 3.4); 485 normal-weight and 278 overweight, were evaluated using the Iowa Gambling Task, Tower of London, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, administered online through the Inquisit web platform version 6 by Millisecon. Results: In the task assessing cognitive flexibility, overweight adults made more errors, took more attempts to complete the task, and completed fewer categories than the normal-weight group. It was also observed that in the decision-making task, overweight individuals tended to choose options considered disadvantageous. However, no differences were found between the groups in the planning task. Conclusion: The observed cognitive difficulties suggest that overweight individuals may have trouble changing unhelpful behavioral patterns and are inclined towards decisions that provide immediate gratifying consequences but are detrimental in the long term. This may interfere with habit change for weight loss, suggesting the inclusion of cognitive rehabilitation strategies in treatment protocols for overweight and obesity. In addition, it is necessary to use other instruments to evaluate planning and clarify the role of this variable in this population.