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In decision-making research, one important aspect of real-life decisions has so far been neglected: the mood of the decision maker when generating options. The authors tested the use of the take-the-first (TTF) heuristic and extended the TTF model to understand how mood influences the option-generation process of individuals in two studies, the first using a between-subjects design (30 nonexperts, 30 near-experts, and 30 experts) and the second conceptually replicating the first using a within-subject design (30 nonexperts). Participants took part in an experimental option-generation task, with 31 three-dimensional videos of choices in team handball. Three moods were elicited: positive, neutral, and negative. The findings (a) replicate previous results concerning TTF and (b) show that the option-generation process was associated with the physiological component of mood, supporting the neurovisceral integration model. The extension of TTF to processing emotional factors is an important step forward in explaining fast choices in real-life situations.

We studied the influence of contextual factors and the referees’ own motor experience on the quality of their perceptual judgments. The theoretical framework combined the social cognition approach with the embodied cognition, and enabled us to determine whether judgments were biased or not by using a combination of contextual and internal factors. Sixty fully-qualified and aspiring judo referees were tested in a video-based decision-making task in which they had to decide when to stop the ground contact phase. The decision task differed depending on whether one contestant dominated the other or whether they were equal in the prior phase. Results indicated that the referees’ motor experience influenced perceptual judgments and interacted with contextual factors, enhancing the need for a combination of social and embodied cognition to explain biases in referees’ judgments. Practical considerations were discussed in this paper, such as, whether referees need recent motor experience and how this could influence rules of governing bodies for officiating.