251
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Ratcliff R, Smith PL, Brown SD, McKoon G. Diffusion Decision Model: Current Issues and History. Trends Cogn Sci 2016; 20:260-281. [PMID: 26952739 PMCID: PMC4928591 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 688] [Impact Index Per Article: 86.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2015] [Revised: 01/15/2016] [Accepted: 01/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
There is growing interest in diffusion models to represent the cognitive and neural processes of speeded decision making. Sequential-sampling models like the diffusion model have a long history in psychology. They view decision making as a process of noisy accumulation of evidence from a stimulus. The standard model assumes that evidence accumulates at a constant rate during the second or two it takes to make a decision. This process can be linked to the behaviors of populations of neurons and to theories of optimality. Diffusion models have been used successfully in a range of cognitive tasks and as psychometric tools in clinical research to examine individual differences. In this review, we relate the models to both earlier and more recent research in psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger Ratcliff
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
| | - Philip L Smith
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Level 12, Redmond Barry Building 115, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Scott D Brown
- School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia, Aviation Building, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
| | - Gail McKoon
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
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252
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Ashby NJS, Johnson JG, Krajbich I, Wedel M. Applications and Innovations of Eye-movement Research in Judgment and Decision Making. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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253
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Bakkour A, Leuker C, Hover AM, Giles N, Poldrack RA, Schonberg T. Mechanisms of Choice Behavior Shift Using Cue-approach Training. Front Psychol 2016; 7:421. [PMID: 27047435 PMCID: PMC4804288 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2015] [Accepted: 03/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Cue-approach training has been shown to effectively shift choices for snack food items by associating a cued button-press motor response to particular food items. Furthermore, attention was biased toward previously cued items, even when the cued item is not chosen for real consumption during a choice phase. However, the exact mechanism by which preferences shift during cue-approach training is not entirely clear. In three experiments, we shed light on the possible underlying mechanisms at play during this novel paradigm: (1) Uncued, wholly predictable motor responses paired with particular food items were not sufficient to elicit a preference shift; (2) Cueing motor responses early – concurrently with food item onset – and thus eliminating the need for heightened top–down attention to the food stimulus in preparation for a motor response also eliminated the shift in food preferences. This finding reinforces our hypothesis that heightened attention at behaviorally relevant points in time is key to changing choice behavior in the cue-approach task; (3) Crucially, indicating choice using eye movements rather than manual button presses preserves the effect, thus demonstrating that the shift in preferences is not governed by a learned motor response but more likely via modulation of subjective value in higher associative regions, consistent with previous neuroimaging results. Cue-approach training drives attention at behaviorally relevant points in time to modulate the subjective value of individual items, providing a mechanism for behavior change that does not rely on external reinforcement and that holds great promise for developing real world behavioral interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akram Bakkour
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX, USA; Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New YorkNew York, NY, USA
| | - Christina Leuker
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX, USA; Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human DevelopmentBerlin, Germany
| | - Ashleigh M Hover
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA
| | - Nathan Giles
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA
| | - Russell A Poldrack
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX, USA; Department of Psychology, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA, USA
| | - Tom Schonberg
- Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv, Israel
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254
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Sali AW, Anderson BA, Courtney SM. Information processing biases in the brain: Implications for decision-making and self-governance. NEUROETHICS-NETH 2016; 11:259-271. [PMID: 30555600 DOI: 10.1007/s12152-016-9251-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
To make behavioral choices that are in line with our goals and our moral beliefs, we need to gather and consider information about our current situation. Most information present in our environment is not relevant to the choices we need or would want to make and thus could interfere with our ability to behave in ways that reflect our underlying values. Certain sources of information could even lead us to make choices we later regret, and thus it would be beneficial to be able to ignore that information. Our ability to exert successful self-governance depends on our ability to attend to sources of information that we deem important to our decision-making processes. We generally assume that, at any moment, we have the ability to choose what we pay attention to. However, recent research indicates that what we pay attention to is influenced by our prior experiences, including reward history and past successes and failures, even when we are not aware of this history. Even momentary distractions can cause us to miss or discount information that should have a greater influence on our decisions given our values. Such biases in attention thus raise questions about the degree to which the choices that we make may be poorly informed and not truly reflect our ability to otherwise exert self-governance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony W Sali
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University.,Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Brian A Anderson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Susan M Courtney
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University.,Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.,F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute
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255
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Zhou L, Zhang YY, Wang ZJ, Rao LL, Wang W, Li S, Li X, Liang ZY. A Scanpath Analysis of the Risky Decision-Making Process. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lei Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
| | - Yang-Yang Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
| | - Zuo-Jun Wang
- Department of Psychology; Ningbo University; Ningbo China
| | - Li-Lin Rao
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
| | - Wei Wang
- Department of Medicine; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School; MA USA
| | - Shu Li
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
| | - Xingshan Li
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
| | - Zhu-Yuan Liang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing China
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256
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Oud B, Krajbich I, Miller K, Cheong JH, Botvinick M, Fehr E. Irrational time allocation in decision-making. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 283:20151439. [PMID: 26763695 PMCID: PMC4721081 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2015] [Accepted: 12/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Time is an extremely valuable resource but little is known about the efficiency of time allocation in decision-making. Empirical evidence suggests that in many ecologically relevant situations, decision difficulty and the relative reward from making a correct choice, compared to an incorrect one, are inversely linked, implying that it is optimal to use relatively less time for difficult choice problems. This applies, in particular, to value-based choices, in which the relative reward from choosing the higher valued item shrinks as the values of the other options get closer to the best option and are thus more difficult to discriminate. Here, we experimentally show that people behave sub-optimally in such contexts. They do not respond to incentives that favour the allocation of time to choice problems in which the relative reward for choosing the best option is high; instead they spend too much time on problems in which the reward difference between the options is low. We demonstrate this by showing that it is possible to improve subjects' time allocation with a simple intervention that cuts them off when their decisions take too long. Thus, we provide a novel form of evidence that organisms systematically spend their valuable time in an inefficient way, and simultaneously offer a potential solution to the problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bastiaan Oud
- Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland
| | - Ian Krajbich
- Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland Department of Economics and Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Kevin Miller
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Jin Hyun Cheong
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Matthew Botvinick
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Ernst Fehr
- Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland
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257
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Holmes WR, Trueblood JS, Heathcote A. A new framework for modeling decisions about changing information: The Piecewise Linear Ballistic Accumulator model. Cogn Psychol 2016; 85:1-29. [PMID: 26760448 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2015] [Revised: 09/25/2015] [Accepted: 11/28/2015] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
In the real world, decision making processes must be able to integrate non-stationary information that changes systematically while the decision is in progress. Although theories of decision making have traditionally been applied to paradigms with stationary information, non-stationary stimuli are now of increasing theoretical interest. We use a random-dot motion paradigm along with cognitive modeling to investigate how the decision process is updated when a stimulus changes. Participants viewed a cloud of moving dots, where the motion switched directions midway through some trials, and were asked to determine the direction of motion. Behavioral results revealed a strong delay effect: after presentation of the initial motion direction there is a substantial time delay before the changed motion information is integrated into the decision process. To further investigate the underlying changes in the decision process, we developed a Piecewise Linear Ballistic Accumulator model (PLBA). The PLBA is efficient to simulate, enabling it to be fit to participant choice and response-time distribution data in a hierarchal modeling framework using a non-parametric approximate Bayesian algorithm. Consistent with behavioral results, PLBA fits confirmed the presence of a long delay between presentation and integration of new stimulus information, but did not support increased response caution in reaction to the change. We also found the decision process was not veridical, as symmetric stimulus change had an asymmetric effect on the rate of evidence accumulation. Thus, the perceptual decision process was slow to react to, and underestimated, new contrary motion information.
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Affiliation(s)
- William R Holmes
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 37212, United States.,Department of Mathematics, University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - Jennifer S Trueblood
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 37212, United States.,Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 92697, United States
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258
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Vu TMH, Tu VP, Duerrschmid K. Design factors influence consumers’ gazing behaviour and decision time in an eye-tracking test: A study on food images. Food Qual Prefer 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.05.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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259
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Hochman G, Glöckner A, Fiedler S, Ayal S. “I can see it in your eyes”: Biased Processing and Increased Arousal in Dishonest Responses. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2015. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Guy Hochman
- Social Science Research Institute; Duke University; Durham NC USA
- Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology; Interdisciplinary Center (IDC); Herzliya Israel
| | - Andreas Glöckner
- Institut für Psychologie; University of Hagen; Hagen Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods; Bonn Germany
| | - Susann Fiedler
- Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods; Bonn Germany
| | - Shahar Ayal
- Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology; Interdisciplinary Center (IDC); Herzliya Israel
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260
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Lloyd K, Dayan P. Tamping Ramping: Algorithmic, Implementational, and Computational Explanations of Phasic Dopamine Signals in the Accumbens. PLoS Comput Biol 2015; 11:e1004622. [PMID: 26699940 PMCID: PMC4689534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2015] [Accepted: 10/25/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Substantial evidence suggests that the phasic activity of dopamine neurons represents reinforcement learning’s temporal difference prediction error. However, recent reports of ramp-like increases in dopamine concentration in the striatum when animals are about to act, or are about to reach rewards, appear to pose a challenge to established thinking. This is because the implied activity is persistently predictable by preceding stimuli, and so cannot arise as this sort of prediction error. Here, we explore three possible accounts of such ramping signals: (a) the resolution of uncertainty about the timing of action; (b) the direct influence of dopamine over mechanisms associated with making choices; and (c) a new model of discounted vigour. Collectively, these suggest that dopamine ramps may be explained, with only minor disturbance, by standard theoretical ideas, though urgent questions remain regarding their proximal cause. We suggest experimental approaches to disentangling which of the proposed mechanisms are responsible for dopamine ramps. Dopamine has long been implicated in reward-motivated behaviour. Theory and experiments suggest that activity of dopamine-containing neurons resembles a temporally-sophisticated prediction error used to learn expectations of future reward. This account would appear to be inconsistent with recent observations of ‘ramps’, i.e., gradual increases in extracellular dopamine concentration prior to the execution of actions or the acquisition of rewards. We explore three different possible explanations of such ramping signals as arising: (a) when subjects experience uncertainty about when actions will be executed; (b) when dopamine itself influences the timecourse of choice; and (c) under a new model in which ‘quasi-tonic’ dopamine signals arise through a form of temporal discounting. We thereby show that dopamine ramps can be integrated with current theories, and also suggest experiments to clarify which mechanisms are involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Lloyd
- Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Peter Dayan
- Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, London, United Kingdom
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261
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Testing necessary regional frontal contributions to value assessment and fixation-based updating. Nat Commun 2015; 6:10120. [PMID: 26658289 PMCID: PMC4682105 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2015] [Accepted: 11/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Value-based decisions are biased by the time people spend viewing each option: Options fixated longer are chosen more often, even when previously rated as less appealing. This bias is thought to reflect ‘value updating' as new evidence is accumulated. Prior work has shown that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) carries a fixation-dependent value comparison signal, while other studies implicate dorsomedial PFC in representing the value of alternative options. Here, we test whether these regions are necessary for fixation-related value updating in 33 people with frontal lobe damage and 27 healthy controls performing a simple choice task. We show that damage to dorsomedial PFC leads to an exaggerated influence of fixations on choice, while damage to ventromedial or lateral PFC has no effect on this bias. These findings suggest a critical role for dorsomedial, and not ventromedial PFC, in mediating the relative influence of current fixations and a priori value on choice. In value-based decisions, the longer one fixates on an option, the more likely one is to choose it. Here, the authors compare the performance of people with focal frontal lobe damage in a simple choice task and show that damage to the dorsomedial PFC leads to exaggerated fixation-related value updating.
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262
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263
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Biscione V, Harris CM. Investigating decision rules with a new experimental design: the EXACT paradigm. Front Behav Neurosci 2015; 9:288. [PMID: 26578916 PMCID: PMC4630306 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2015] [Accepted: 10/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In the decision-making field, it is important to distinguish between the perceptual process (how information is collected) and the decision rule (the strategy governing decision-making). We propose a new paradigm, called EXogenous ACcumulation Task (EXACT) to disentangle these two components. The paradigm consists of showing a horizontal gauge that represents the probability of receiving a reward at time t and increases with time. The participant is asked to press a button when they want to request a reward. Thus, the perceptual mechanism is hard-coded and does not need to be inferred from the data. Based on this paradigm, we compared four decision rules (Bayes Risk, Reward Rate, Reward/Accuracy, and Modified Reward Rate) and found that participants appeared to behave according to the Modified Reward Rate. We propose a new way of analysing the data by using the accuracy of responses, which can only be inferred in classic RT tasks. Our analysis suggests that several experimental findings such as RT distribution and its relationship with experimental conditions, usually deemed to be the result of a rise-to-threshold process, may be simply explained by the effect of the decision rule employed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerio Biscione
- School of Psychology, Plymouth UniversityPlymouth, UK
- Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, Plymouth UniversityPlymouth, UK
- *Correspondence: Valerio Biscione
| | - Christopher M. Harris
- School of Psychology, Plymouth UniversityPlymouth, UK
- Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, Plymouth UniversityPlymouth, UK
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264
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Stewart N, Gächter S, Noguchi T, Mullett TL. Eye Movements in Strategic Choice. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2015; 29:137-156. [PMID: 27513881 PMCID: PMC4959529 DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2014] [Revised: 07/22/2015] [Accepted: 07/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In risky and other multiattribute choices, the process of choosing is well described by random walk or drift diffusion models in which evidence is accumulated over time to threshold. In strategic choices, level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models have been offered as accounts of the choice process, in which people simulate the choice processes of their opponents or partners. We recorded the eye movements in 2 × 2 symmetric games including dominance‐solvable games like prisoner's dilemma and asymmetric coordination games like stag hunt and hawk–dove. The evidence was most consistent with the accumulation of payoff differences over time: we found longer duration choices with more fixations when payoffs differences were more finely balanced, an emerging bias to gaze more at the payoffs for the action ultimately chosen, and that a simple count of transitions between payoffs—whether or not the comparison is strategically informative—was strongly associated with the final choice. The accumulator models do account for these strategic choice process measures, but the level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models do not. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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265
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A Common Mechanism Underlying Food Choice and Social Decisions. PLoS Comput Biol 2015; 11:e1004371. [PMID: 26460812 PMCID: PMC4604207 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2014] [Accepted: 05/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
People make numerous decisions every day including perceptual decisions such as walking through a crowd, decisions over primary rewards such as what to eat, and social decisions that require balancing own and others’ benefits. The unifying principles behind choices in various domains are, however, still not well understood. Mathematical models that describe choice behavior in specific contexts have provided important insights into the computations that may underlie decision making in the brain. However, a critical and largely unanswered question is whether these models generalize from one choice context to another. Here we show that a model adapted from the perceptual decision-making domain and estimated on choices over food rewards accurately predicts choices and reaction times in four independent sets of subjects making social decisions. The robustness of the model across domains provides behavioral evidence for a common decision-making process in perceptual, primary reward, and social decision making. One critical question that concerns all disciplines involved in the study of human decision-making is whether different types of decisions are made in different ways, or whether there exists a common decision mechanism that underlies human choices. If the latter, what are the properties of that mechanism? Here we characterize a dynamical model of decision making that was initially fit to subjects making food choices but was later able to accurately predict choices and reaction times of separate groups of subjects making social decisions. The robustness of the model across different subjects, tasks, and environments supports the idea that the brain uses a consistent process for making decisions.
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266
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267
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Bossaerts P, Murawski C. From behavioural economics to neuroeconomics to decision neuroscience: the ascent of biology in research on human decision making. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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268
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Abstract
Research on the dynamics of reward-based, goal-directed decision making has largely focused on simple choice, where participants decide among a set of unitary, mutually exclusive options. Recent work suggests that the deliberation process underlying simple choice can be understood in terms of evidence integration: Noisy evidence in favor of each option accrues over time, until the evidence in favor of one option is significantly greater than the rest. However, real-life decisions often involve not one, but several steps of action, requiring a consideration of cumulative rewards and a sensitivity to recursive decision structure. We present results from two experiments that leveraged techniques previously applied to simple choice to shed light on the deliberation process underlying multistep choice. We interpret the results from these experiments in terms of a new computational model, which extends the evidence accumulation perspective to multiple steps of action.
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269
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Franco‐Watkins AM, Mattson RE, Jackson MD. Now or Later? Attentional Processing and Intertemporal Choice. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2015. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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270
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Rethinking fast and slow based on a critique of reaction-time reverse inference. Nat Commun 2015; 6:7455. [PMID: 26135809 PMCID: PMC4500827 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2015] [Accepted: 05/11/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Do people intuitively favour certain actions over others? In some dual-process research, reaction-time (RT) data have been used to infer that certain choices are intuitive. However, the use of behavioural or biological measures to infer mental function, popularly known as ‘reverse inference', is problematic because it does not take into account other sources of variability in the data, such as discriminability of the choice options. Here we use two example data sets obtained from value-based choice experiments to demonstrate that, after controlling for discriminability (that is, strength-of-preference), there is no evidence that one type of choice is systematically faster than the other. Moreover, using specific variations of a prominent value-based choice experiment, we are able to predictably replicate, eliminate or reverse previously reported correlations between RT and selfishness. Thus, our findings shed crucial light on the use of RT in inferring mental processes and strongly caution against using RT differences as evidence favouring dual-process accounts. In cognitive neuroscience, it is common practice to use reaction time data to infer whether decisions are intuitive or deliberate. Here the authors demonstrate that they can replicate, eliminate and reverse previously reported correlations between selfishness and reaction time.
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271
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Hawkins GE, Wagenmakers EJ, Ratcliff R, Brown SD. Discriminating evidence accumulation from urgency signals in speeded decision making. J Neurophysiol 2015; 114:40-7. [PMID: 25904706 PMCID: PMC4495756 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00088.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2015] [Accepted: 04/17/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The dominant theoretical paradigm in explaining decision making throughout both neuroscience and cognitive science is known as “evidence accumulation”--The core idea being that decisions are reached by a gradual accumulation of noisy information. Although this notion has been supported by hundreds of experiments over decades of study, a recent theory proposes that the fundamental assumption of evidence accumulation requires revision. The "urgency gating" model assumes decisions are made without accumulating evidence, using only moment-by-moment information. Under this assumption, the successful history of evidence accumulation models is explained by asserting that the two models are mathematically identical in standard experimental procedures. We demonstrate that this proof of equivalence is incorrect, and that the models are not identical, even when both models are augmented with realistic extra assumptions. We also demonstrate that the two models can be perfectly distinguished in realistic simulated experimental designs, and in two real data sets; the evidence accumulation model provided the best account for one data set, and the urgency gating model for the other. A positive outcome is that the opposing modeling approaches can be fruitfully investigated without wholesale change to the standard experimental paradigms. We conclude that future research must establish whether the urgency gating model enjoys the same empirical support in the standard experimental paradigms that evidence accumulation models have gathered over decades of study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy E Hawkins
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
| | | | - Roger Ratcliff
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; and
| | - Scott D Brown
- School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
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272
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Erlich JC, Brunton BW, Duan CA, Hanks TD, Brody CD. Distinct effects of prefrontal and parietal cortex inactivations on an accumulation of evidence task in the rat. eLife 2015; 4:e05457. [PMID: 25869470 PMCID: PMC4392479 DOI: 10.7554/elife.05457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 141] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2014] [Accepted: 03/01/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous brain regions have been shown to have neural correlates of gradually accumulating evidence for decision-making, but the causal roles of these regions in decisions driven by accumulation of evidence have yet to be determined. Here, in rats performing an auditory evidence accumulation task, we inactivated the frontal orienting fields (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), two rat cortical regions that have neural correlates of accumulating evidence and that have been proposed as central to decision-making. We used a detailed model of the decision process to analyze the effect of inactivations. Inactivation of the FOF induced substantial performance impairments that were quantitatively best described as an impairment in the output pathway of an evidence accumulator with a long integration time constant (>240 ms). In contrast, we found a minimal role for PPC in decisions guided by accumulating auditory evidence, even while finding a strong role for PPC in internally-guided decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey C Erlich
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
| | - Bingni W Brunton
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
- Department of Biology, UW Institute of Neuroengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
| | - Chunyu A Duan
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
| | - Timothy D Hanks
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
| | - Carlos D Brody
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
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273
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Sakellaridi S, Christova P, Christopoulos VN, Vialard A, Peponis J, Georgopoulos AP. Cognitive mechanisms underlying instructed choice exploration of small city maps. Front Neurosci 2015; 9:60. [PMID: 25852452 PMCID: PMC4367532 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2014] [Accepted: 02/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying the exploration and decision-making in realistic and novel environments. Twelve human subjects were shown small circular U.S. city maps with two locations highlighted on the circumference, as possible choices for a post office (“targets”). At the beginning of a trial, subjects fixated a spot at the center of the map and ultimately chose one of the two locations. A space syntax analysis of the map paths (from the center to each target) revealed that the chosen location was associated with the less convoluted path, as if subjects navigated mentally the paths in an “ant's way,” i.e., by staying within street boundaries, and ultimately choosing the target that could be reached from the center in the shortest way, and the fewest turns and intersections. The subjects' strategy for map exploration and decision making was investigated by monitoring eye position during the task. This revealed a restricted exploration of the map delimited by the location of the two alternative options and the center of the map. Specifically, subjects explored the areas around the two target options by repeatedly looking at them before deciding which one to choose, presumably implementing an evaluation and decision-making process. The ultimate selection of a specific target was significantly associated with the time spent exploring the area around that target. Finally, an analysis of the sequence of eye fixations revealed that subjects tended to look systematically toward the target ultimately chosen even from the beginning of the trial. This finding indicates an early cognitive selection bias for the ensuing decision process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Sakellaridi
- Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Brain Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Peka Christova
- Brain Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Vassilios N Christopoulos
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Alice Vialard
- School of Architecture, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - John Peponis
- School of Architecture, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Apostolos P Georgopoulos
- Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Brain Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School Minneapolis, MN, USA
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274
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Abstract
Eye gaze is a window onto cognitive processing in tasks such as spatial memory, linguistic processing, and decision making. We present evidence that information derived from eye gaze can be used to change the course of individuals' decisions, even when they are reasoning about high-level, moral issues. Previous studies have shown that when an experimenter actively controls what an individual sees the experimenter can affect simple decisions with alternatives of almost equal valence. Here we show that if an experimenter passively knows when individuals move their eyes the experimenter can change complex moral decisions. This causal effect is achieved by simply adjusting the timing of the decisions. We monitored participants' eye movements during a two-alternative forced-choice task with moral questions. One option was randomly predetermined as a target. At the moment participants had fixated the target option for a set amount of time we terminated their deliberation and prompted them to choose between the two alternatives. Although participants were unaware of this gaze-contingent manipulation, their choices were systematically biased toward the target option. We conclude that even abstract moral cognition is partly constituted by interactions with the immediate environment and is likely supported by gaze-dependent decision processes. By tracking the interplay between individuals, their sensorimotor systems, and the environment, we can influence the outcome of a decision without directly manipulating the content of the information available to them.
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275
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The effect of consumer ratings and attentional allocation on product valuations. JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING 2015. [DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500003934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractOnline marketplaces allow consumers to leave reviews about the products they purchase, which are visible to potential customers and competitors. While the impact of reviews on valuations of worth and purchasing decisions has been intensively studied, little is known about how the reviews themselves are attended to, and the relation between attention and valuations. In three studies we use eye-tracking methodologies to investigate attention in subjective monetary valuations of consumer goods. We find that, when evaluating consumer goods, individuals’ attention to ratings are related to their frequencies, attention to positive or negative information is related to subjective valuations, and that perspective (owner vs. non-owner) influences the type of information attended to. These findings extend previous research regarding the valuations of risky prospects as implemented in abstract monetary gambles and suggest that similar cognitive processes might underlie both types of tasks.
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276
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Hawkins GE, Forstmann BU, Wagenmakers EJ, Ratcliff R, Brown SD. Revisiting the evidence for collapsing boundaries and urgency signals in perceptual decision-making. J Neurosci 2015; 35:2476-84. [PMID: 25673842 PMCID: PMC6605613 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2410-14.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 135] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2014] [Revised: 10/03/2014] [Accepted: 11/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
For nearly 50 years, the dominant account of decision-making holds that noisy information is accumulated until a fixed threshold is crossed. This account has been tested extensively against behavioral and neurophysiological data for decisions about consumer goods, perceptual stimuli, eyewitness testimony, memories, and dozens of other paradigms, with no systematic misfit between model and data. Recently, the standard model has been challenged by alternative accounts that assume that less evidence is required to trigger a decision as time passes. Such "collapsing boundaries" or "urgency signals" have gained popularity in some theoretical accounts of neurophysiology. Nevertheless, evidence in favor of these models is mixed, with support coming from only a narrow range of decision paradigms compared with a long history of support from dozens of paradigms for the standard theory. We conducted the first large-scale analysis of data from humans and nonhuman primates across three distinct paradigms using powerful model-selection methods to compare evidence for fixed versus collapsing bounds. Overall, we identified evidence in favor of the standard model with fixed decision boundaries. We further found that evidence for static or dynamic response boundaries may depend on specific paradigms or procedures, such as the extent of task practice. We conclude that the difficulty of selecting between collapsing and fixed bounds models has received insufficient attention in previous research, calling into question some previous results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy E Hawkins
- School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia,
| | | | - Eric-Jan Wagenmakers
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1018WS, The Netherlands, and
| | - Roger Ratcliff
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
| | - Scott D Brown
- School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
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277
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Abstract
A one-boundary diffusion model was applied to the data from two experiments in which subjects were performing a simple simulated driving task. In the first experiment, the same subjects were tested on two driving tasks using a PC-based driving simulator and the psychomotor vigilance test. The diffusion model fit the response time distributions for each task and individual subject well. Model parameters were found to correlate across tasks, which suggests that common component processes were being tapped in the three tasks. The model was also fit to a distracted driving experiment of Cooper and Strayer (Human Factors, 50, 893-902, 2008). Results showed that distraction altered performance by affecting the rate of evidence accumulation (drift rate) and/or increasing the boundary settings. This provides an interpretation of cognitive distraction whereby conversing on a cell phone diverts attention from the normal accumulation of information in the driving environment.
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278
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O'Leary T, Sutton AC, Marder E. Computational models in the age of large datasets. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2015; 32:87-94. [PMID: 25637959 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2015.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2014] [Accepted: 01/10/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Technological advances in experimental neuroscience are generating vast quantities of data, from the dynamics of single molecules to the structure and activity patterns of large networks of neurons. How do we make sense of these voluminous, complex, disparate and often incomplete data? How do we find general principles in the morass of detail? Computational models are invaluable and necessary in this task and yield insights that cannot otherwise be obtained. However, building and interpreting good computational models is a substantial challenge, especially so in the era of large datasets. Fitting detailed models to experimental data is difficult and often requires onerous assumptions, while more loosely constrained conceptual models that explore broad hypotheses and principles can yield more useful insights.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy O'Leary
- Biology Department and Volen Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, United States
| | - Alexander C Sutton
- Biology Department and Volen Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, United States
| | - Eve Marder
- Biology Department and Volen Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, United States.
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279
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Stewart N, Hermens F, Matthews WJ. Eye Movements in Risky Choice. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2015; 29:116-136. [PMID: 27522985 PMCID: PMC4964953 DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2014] [Revised: 10/06/2014] [Accepted: 10/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
We asked participants to make simple risky choices while we recorded their eye movements. We built a complete statistical model of the eye movements and found very little systematic variation in eye movements over the time course of a choice or across the different choices. The only exceptions were finding more (of the same) eye movements when choice options were similar, and an emerging gaze bias in which people looked more at the gamble they ultimately chose. These findings are inconsistent with prospect theory, the priority heuristic, or decision field theory. However, the eye movements made during a choice have a large relationship with the final choice, and this is mostly independent from the contribution of the actual attribute values in the choice options. That is, eye movements tell us not just about the processing of attribute values but also are independently associated with choice. The pattern is simple-people choose the gamble they look at more often, independently of the actual numbers they see-and this pattern is simpler than predicted by decision field theory, decision by sampling, and the parallel constraint satisfaction model. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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280
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel M. Oppenheimer
- Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90077;
| | - Evan Kelso
- Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90077;
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281
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Abstract
AbstractPeoples’ choices are not instantaneous, nor are they perfectly self consistent. While these two facts may at first seem unrelated, they are in fact inextricably linked. Decision scientists are accustomed to using logit and probit models to account for “noise” in their choice data. But what is the driving force behind these behavioral inconsistencies? Random utility theory (RUT) provides little guidance in this respect. While providing a mathematical basis for dealing with stochastic choice, RUT is agnostic about whether the noise is due to unobserved characteristics of the decision maker and/or the choice environment, or due to actual “mistakes.” The distinction is important because the former implies that from the point of view of the decision maker, her choices are perfectly consistent, while the latter implies that the decision maker herself may be surprised by her set of choices. Here we argue that non-choice (“process”) data strongly favors the latter explanation. Rather than thinking of choice as an instantaneous realization of stored preferences, we instead conceptualize choice as a dynamical process of information accumulation and comparison. Adapting “sequential sampling models” from cognitive psychology to economic choice, we illustrate the surprisingly complex relationship between choice and response-time data. Finally, we review recent data demonstrating how other process measures such as eye-tracking and neural recordings can be incorporated into this modeling approach, yielding further insights into the choice process.
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282
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Cognitive science contributions to decision science. Cognition 2014; 135:43-6. [PMID: 25500184 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2014] [Revised: 11/12/2014] [Accepted: 11/13/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
This article briefly reviews the history and interplay between decision theory, behavioral decision-making research, and cognitive psychology. The review reveals the increasingly important impact that psychology and cognitive science have on decision science. One of the main contributions of cognitive science to decision science is the development of dynamic models that describe the cognitive processes that underlay the evolution of preferences during deliberation phase of making a decision.
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283
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Glöckner A, Hilbig BE, Jekel M. What is adaptive about adaptive decision making? A parallel constraint satisfaction account. Cognition 2014; 133:641-66. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2014] [Revised: 08/23/2014] [Accepted: 08/27/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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284
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Gottlieb J, Hayhoe M, Hikosaka O, Rangel A. Attention, reward, and information seeking. J Neurosci 2014; 34:15497-504. [PMID: 25392517 PMCID: PMC4228145 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3270-14.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2014] [Revised: 10/08/2014] [Accepted: 10/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Decision making is thought to be guided by the values of alternative options and involve the accumulation of evidence to an internal bound. However, in natural behavior, evidence accumulation is an active process whereby subjects decide when and which sensory stimulus to sample. These sampling decisions are naturally served by attention and rapid eye movements (saccades), but little is known about how saccades are controlled to guide future actions. Here we review evidence that was discussed at a recent symposium, which suggests that information selection involves basal ganglia and cortical mechanisms and that, across different contexts, it is guided by two central factors: the gains in reward and gains in information (uncertainty reduction) associated with sensory cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline Gottlieb
- Department of Neuroscience and Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032,
| | - Mary Hayhoe
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Okihide Hikosaka
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Antonio Rangel
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computational and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, and
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285
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DeKay ML, Miller SA, Schley DR, Erford BM. Proleader and antitrailer information distortion and their effects on choice and postchoice memory. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND HUMAN DECISION PROCESSES 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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286
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Frydman C, Rangel A. Debiasing the disposition effect by reducing the saliency of information about a stock's purchase price. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR & ORGANIZATION 2014; 107:541-552. [PMID: 25774069 PMCID: PMC4357845 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.01.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
The disposition effect refers to the empirical fact that investors have a higher propensity to sell risky assets with capital gains compared to risky assets with capital losses, and it has been associated with low trading performance. We use a stock trading laboratory experiment to investigate if it is possible to reduce subjects' tendency to exhibit a disposition effect by making information about a stock's purchase price, and thus about capital gains and losses, less salient. We compare two experimental conditions: a high-saliency condition in which the purchase price of a stock is prominently displayed by the trading software, and a low-saliency condition in which it is not displayed at all. We find that individuals exhibit a disposition effect in the high-saliency condition, and that the effect is 25% smaller in the low-saliency condition. This suggests that it is possible to debias the disposition effect by reducing the saliency with which information about a stock's purchase price is displayed on financial statements and online trading platforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cary Frydman
- Department of Finance and Business Economics, USC Marshall School of Business, 3670 Trousdale Parkway, Suite 308, Los Angeles, CA 90089. (213)-821-5586
| | - Antonio Rangel
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences & Computational and Neural Systems, Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125. (626)-395-4091
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287
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Tsetsos K, Wyart V, Shorkey SP, Summerfield C. Neural mechanisms of economic commitment in the human medial prefrontal cortex. eLife 2014; 3:e03701. [PMID: 25333687 PMCID: PMC4227044 DOI: 10.7554/elife.03701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2014] [Accepted: 10/16/2014] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Neurobiologists have studied decisions by offering successive, independent choices between goods or gambles. However, choices often have lasting consequences, as when investing in a house or choosing a partner. Here, humans decided whether to commit (by acceptance or rejection) to prospects that provided sustained financial return. BOLD signals in the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) encoded stimulus value only when acceptance or rejection was deferred into the future, suggesting a role in integrating value signals over time. By contrast, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) encoded stimulus value only when participants rejected (or deferred accepting) a prospect. dACC BOLD signals reflected two decision biases-to defer commitments to later, and to weight potential losses more heavily than gains-that (paradoxically) maximised reward in this task. These findings offer fresh insights into the pressures that shape economic decisions, and the computation of value in the medial prefrontal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Tsetsos
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Valentin Wyart
- Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
| | - S Paul Shorkey
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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288
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Unconscious cues bias first saccades in a free-saccade task. Conscious Cogn 2014; 29:48-55. [PMID: 25108793 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2014] [Revised: 07/09/2014] [Accepted: 07/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Visual-spatial attention can be biased towards salient visual information without visual awareness. It is unclear, however, whether such bias can further influence free-choices such as saccades in a free viewing task. In our experiment, we presented visual cues below awareness threshold immediately before people made free saccades. Our results showed that masked cues could influence the direction and latency of the first free saccade, suggesting that salient visual information can unconsciously influence free actions.
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289
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Lindner MA, Eitel A, Thoma GB, Dalehefte IM, Ihme JM, Köller O. Tracking the Decision-Making Process in Multiple-Choice Assessment: Evidence from Eye Movements. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2014. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Gun-Brit Thoma
- Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education; Kiel Germany
| | | | - Jan Marten Ihme
- Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education; Kiel Germany
| | - Olaf Köller
- Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education; Kiel Germany
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290
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Cavanagh JF, Wiecki TV, Kochar A, Frank MJ. Eye tracking and pupillometry are indicators of dissociable latent decision processes. J Exp Psychol Gen 2014; 143:1476-88. [PMID: 24548281 PMCID: PMC4114997 DOI: 10.1037/a0035813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 140] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Can you predict what people are going to do just by watching them? This is certainly difficult: it would require a clear mapping between observable indicators and unobservable cognitive states. In this report, we demonstrate how this is possible by monitoring eye gaze and pupil dilation, which predict dissociable biases during decision making. We quantified decision making using the drift diffusion model (DDM), which provides an algorithmic account of how evidence accumulation and response caution contribute to decisions through separate latent parameters of drift rate and decision threshold, respectively. We used a hierarchical Bayesian estimation approach to assess the single trial influence of observable physiological signals on these latent DDM parameters. Increased eye gaze dwell time specifically predicted an increased drift rate toward the fixated option, irrespective of the value of the option. In contrast, greater pupil dilation specifically predicted an increase in decision threshold during difficult decisions. These findings suggest that eye tracking and pupillometry reflect the operations of dissociated latent decision processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- James F. Cavanagh
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
- Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131
| | - Thomas V. Wiecki
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
| | - Angad Kochar
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
| | - Michael J. Frank
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
- Department of Psychiatry, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
- Brown Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912
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291
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Kiani R, Cueva CJ, Reppas JB, Newsome WT. Dynamics of neural population responses in prefrontal cortex indicate changes of mind on single trials. Curr Biol 2014; 24:1542-7. [PMID: 24954050 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2014] [Revised: 05/20/2014] [Accepted: 05/21/2014] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Decision making is a complex process in which different sources of information are combined into a decision variable (DV) that guides action [1, 2]. Neurophysiological studies have typically sought insight into the dynamics of the decision-making process and its neural mechanisms through statistical analysis of large numbers of trials from sequentially recorded single neurons or small groups of neurons [3-6]. However, detecting and analyzing the DV on individual trials has been challenging [7]. Here we show that by recording simultaneously from hundreds of units in prearcuate gyrus of macaque monkeys performing a direction discrimination task, we can predict the monkey's choices with high accuracy and decode DV dynamically as the decision unfolds on individual trials. This advance enabled us to study changes of mind (CoMs) that occasionally happen before the final commitment to a decision [8-10]. On individual trials, the decoded DV varied significantly over time and occasionally changed its sign, identifying a potential CoM. Interrogating the system by random stopping of the decision-making process during the delay period after stimulus presentation confirmed the validity of identified CoMs. Importantly, the properties of the candidate CoMs also conformed to expectations based on prior theoretical and behavioral studies [8]: they were more likely to go from an incorrect to a correct choice, they were more likely for weak and intermediate stimuli than for strong stimuli, and they were more likely earlier in the trial. We suggest that simultaneous recording of large neural populations provides a good estimate of DV and explains idiosyncratic aspects of the decision-making process that were inaccessible before.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roozbeh Kiani
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Room 809, New York, NY 10003, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild Building D209, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
| | - Christopher J Cueva
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild Building D209, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - John B Reppas
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild Building D209, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - William T Newsome
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild Building D209, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center, 279 Campus Drive, Room B202, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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292
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Polanía R, Krajbich I, Grueschow M, Ruff CC. Neural Oscillations and Synchronization Differentially Support Evidence Accumulation in Perceptual and Value-Based Decision Making. Neuron 2014; 82:709-20. [PMID: 24811387 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/21/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Polanía
- Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research (SNS-Lab), Department of Economics, University of Zurich, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Ian Krajbich
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Marcus Grueschow
- Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research (SNS-Lab), Department of Economics, University of Zurich, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Christian C Ruff
- Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research (SNS-Lab), Department of Economics, University of Zurich, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland.
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293
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Noguchi T, Stewart N. In the attraction, compromise, and similarity effects, alternatives are repeatedly compared in pairs on single dimensions. Cognition 2014; 132:44-56. [PMID: 24762922 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2013] [Revised: 03/11/2014] [Accepted: 03/17/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In multi-alternative choice, the attraction, compromise, and similarity effects demonstrate that the value of an alternative is not independent of the other alternatives in the choice-set. Rather, these effects suggest that a choice is reached through the comparison of alternatives. We investigated exactly how alternatives are compared against each other using eye-movement data. The results indicate that a series of comparisons is made in each choice, with a pair of alternatives compared on a single attribute dimension in each comparison. We conclude that psychological models of choice should be based on these single-attribute pairwise comparisons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takao Noguchi
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.
| | - Neil Stewart
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
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294
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Pirrone A, Stafford T, Marshall JAR. When natural selection should optimize speed-accuracy trade-offs. Front Neurosci 2014; 8:73. [PMID: 24782703 PMCID: PMC3989582 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2014] [Accepted: 03/26/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Pirrone
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK ; Kroto Research Institute, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK
| | - Tom Stafford
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK
| | - James A R Marshall
- Kroto Research Institute, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK ; Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK
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295
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Changing value through cued approach: an automatic mechanism of behavior change. Nat Neurosci 2014; 17:625-30. [PMID: 24609465 PMCID: PMC4041518 DOI: 10.1038/nn.3673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2013] [Accepted: 02/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
It is believed that choice behavior reveals the underlying value of goods. The subjective values of stimuli can be changed through reward-based learning mechanisms as well as by modifying the description of the decision problem, but it has yet to be shown that preferences can be manipulated by perturbing intrinsic values of individual items. Here we show that the value of food items can be modulated by the concurrent presentation of an irrelevant auditory cue to which subjects must make a simple motor response (i.e. cue-approach training). Follow-up tests show that the effects of this pairing on choice lasted at least two months after prolonged training. Eye-tracking during choice confirmed that cue-approach training increased attention to the cued items. Neuroimaging revealed the neural signature of a value change in the form of amplified preference-related activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
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296
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Teichert T, Ferrera VP, Grinband J. Humans optimize decision-making by delaying decision onset. PLoS One 2014; 9:e89638. [PMID: 24599295 PMCID: PMC3943733 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2012] [Accepted: 01/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Why do humans make errors on seemingly trivial perceptual decisions? It has been shown that such errors occur in part because the decision process (evidence accumulation) is initiated before selective attention has isolated the relevant sensory information from salient distractors. Nevertheless, it is typically assumed that subjects increase accuracy by prolonging the decision process rather than delaying decision onset. To date it has not been tested whether humans can strategically delay decision onset to increase response accuracy. To address this question we measured the time course of selective attention in a motion interference task using a novel variant of the response signal paradigm. Based on these measurements we estimated time-dependent drift rate and showed that subjects should in principle be able trade speed for accuracy very effectively by delaying decision onset. Using the time-dependent estimate of drift rate we show that subjects indeed delay decision onset in addition to raising response threshold when asked to stress accuracy over speed in a free reaction version of the same motion-interference task. These findings show that decision onset is a critical aspect of the decision process that can be adjusted to effectively improve decision accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Teichert
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Vincent P. Ferrera
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Jack Grinband
- Department of Radiology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
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297
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Tseng YC, Glaser JI, Caddigan E, Lleras A. Modeling the effect of selection history on pop-out visual search. PLoS One 2014; 9:e89996. [PMID: 24595032 PMCID: PMC3940711 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2012] [Accepted: 01/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
While attentional effects in visual selection tasks have traditionally been assigned “top-down” or “bottom-up” origins, more recently it has been proposed that there are three major factors affecting visual selection: (1) physical salience, (2) current goals and (3) selection history. Here, we look further into selection history by investigating Priming of Pop-out (POP) and the Distractor Preview Effect (DPE), two inter-trial effects that demonstrate the influence of recent history on visual search performance. Using the Ratcliff diffusion model, we model observed saccadic selections from an oddball search experiment that included a mix of both POP and DPE conditions. We find that the Ratcliff diffusion model can effectively model the manner in which selection history affects current attentional control in visual inter-trial effects. The model evidence shows that bias regarding the current trial's most likely target color is the most critical parameter underlying the effect of selection history. Our results are consistent with the view that the 3-item color-oddball task used for POP and DPE experiments is best understood as an attentional decision making task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan-Chi Tseng
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
- * E-mail:
| | - Joshua I. Glaser
- Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Eamon Caddigan
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Alejandro Lleras
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
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298
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Rodriguez CA, Turner BM, McClure SM. Intertemporal choice as discounted value accumulation. PLoS One 2014; 9:e90138. [PMID: 24587243 PMCID: PMC3938649 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2013] [Accepted: 01/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Two separate cognitive processes are involved in choosing between rewards available at different points in time. The first is temporal discounting, which consists of combining information about the size and delay of prospective rewards to represent subjective values. The second involves a comparison of available rewards to enable an eventual choice on the basis of these subjective values. While several mathematical models of temporal discounting have been developed, the reward selection process has been largely unexplored. To address this limitation, we evaluated the applicability of the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model as a theory of the selection process in intertemporal choice. The LBA model formalizes the selection process as a sequential sampling algorithm in which information about different choice options is integrated until a decision criterion is reached. We compared several versions of the LBA model to demonstrate that choice outcomes and response times in intertemporal choice are well captured by the LBA process. The relationship between choice outcomes and response times that derives from the LBA model cannot be explained by temporal discounting alone. Moreover, the drift rates that drive evidence accumulation in the best-fitting LBA model are related to independently estimated subjective values derived from various temporal discounting models. These findings provide a quantitative framework for predicting dynamics of choice-related activity during the reward selection process in intertemporal choice and link intertemporal choice to other classes of decisions in which the LBA model has been applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian A. Rodriguez
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Brandon M. Turner
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Samuel M. McClure
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
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299
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Mitsuda T, Glaholt MG. Gaze bias during visual preference judgements: Effects of stimulus category and decision instructions. VISUAL COGNITION 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2014.881447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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300
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Abstract
In many everyday decisions, people quickly integrate noisy samples of information to form a preference among alternatives that offer uncertain rewards. Here, we investigated this decision process using the Flash Gambling Task (FGT), in which participants made a series of choices between a certain payoff and an uncertain alternative that produced a normal distribution of payoffs. For each choice, participants experienced the distribution of payoffs via rapid samples updated every 50ms. We show that people can make these rapid decisions from experience and that the decision process is consistent with a sequential sampling process. Results also reveal a dissociation between these preferential decisions and equivalent perceptual decisions where participants had to determine which alternatives contained more dots on average. To account for this dissociation, we developed a sequential sampling rank-dependent utility model, which showed that participants in the FGT attended more to larger potential payoffs than participants in the perceptual task despite being given equivalent information. We discuss the implications of these findings in terms of computational models of preferential choice and a more complete understanding of experience-based decision making.
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