Abstract: Two experiments with different kinds of information representations were conducted to demonstrate the consistency in the choice reversal between a risky and a less risky option of an equally expected value which were described in positive terms(gain framing) or in negative terms(loss framing).Three hundred and thirty-three middle school students were distributed into the first experiment with description-based representation and the second experiment with experience-based representation to make learning decisions in gain framing or loss framing.The results showed that:1) in the first experiment,there was a choice reversal where almost half the subjects who were given the positively framed version of the task selected the option with a certain outcome,whereas the majority of subjects who were given the negatively framed version selected the risky option.2) In the second experiment,there was no such choice reversal between a risky and a less risky option described in either gain framing or loss framing.In conclusion,there was a framing effect in the first experiment with description-based representation,whereas there was no framing effect in the second one with experience-based representation.The inconsistency of choice reversal in the two experiments implied the significant influence of external information representations on the framing effect in the learning decision-making.

Key words: external information representation, learning decision-making, framing effect, middle school students