scholarly journals Sources of confidence in value-based choice

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Brus ◽  
Helena Aebersold ◽  
Marcus Grueschow ◽  
Rafael Polania

AbstractConfidence, the subjective estimate of decision quality, is a cognitive process necessary for learning from mistakes and guiding future actions. The origins of confidence judgments resulting from economic decisions remain unclear. We devise a task and computational framework that allowed us to formally tease apart the impact of various sources of confidence in value-based decisions, such as uncertainty emerging from encoding and decoding operations, as well as the interplay between gaze-shift dynamics and attentional effort. In line with canonical decision theories, trial-to-trial fluctuations in the precision of value encoding impact economic choice consistency. However, this uncertainty has no influence on confidence reports. Instead, confidence is associated with endogenous attentional effort towards choice alternatives and down-stream noise in the comparison process. These findings provide an explanation for confidence (miss)attributions in value-guided behaviour, suggesting mechanistic influences of endogenous attentional states for guiding decisions and metacognitive awareness of choice certainty.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Polania

"Which meal would you like, chicken or pasta? Chicken please. ...hmmm not sure. No sorry, I prefer pasta". Confidence, the subjective estimate of decision quality, is an essential component of decision making. It is necessary for learning from mistakes in the absence of immediate feedback and guiding future actions. Despite its importance, it remains unclear where confidence judgments originate from, especially for decisions that rely on individual subjective values and preferences. Here, we devised a behavioural paradigm and a computational framework that allowed us to formally tease apart the sources of confidence in value-based decisions. In line with canonical decision theories, we found that trial-to-trial fluctuations in the precision of value encoding impact economic choice consistency. Surprisingly, however, and contrary to canonical theories of confidence, this uncertainty has no influence on confidence reports. Instead, we find that confidence reflects the degree of balance and cognitive effort with which the choice alternatives have been compared. Specifically, we show that confidence emerges from endogenous attentional effort towards choice alternatives and down-stream noise in the comparison process. These findings caution a direct translation of canonical frameworks of confidence based on perceptual decision behavior into the value-based choice domain. In addition our computational framework provides an explanation for confidence miss-attributions in economic behaviour and reveals the mechanistic interplay of endogenous attentional states and subjective value for guiding decisions and metacognitive awareness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Mahsa Assadi

This study reports a pre-experimental research on the impact of metacognitive instruction on EFL learners’ metacognitive awareness and their listening performance. To obtain the goal of the study, a group of 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners, including 14 males and 16 females, were selected randomly. Their ages range from 20 to 24. The participants took part in 16 weeks’ intervention program based on metacognitive pedagogical sequence consisted of five stages. The metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (MALQ), and a listening test were also used to find changes in metacognitive awareness and listening performance before and after the treatment. The results of comparing pre and posttests scores revealed that metacognitive instruction raised the learners’ metacognitive awareness and helped them improve their listening comprehension ability.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunaina Shrivastava ◽  
Gaurav Jain ◽  
JaeHwan Kwon ◽  
Dhananjay Nayakankuppam

Purpose Traditionally, it has been held that strong attitudes are a result of the conscious cognitive process of elaboration where one engages in effortful issue-relevant thinking. The purpose of this study is to show that attitude strength can follow from processes not just limited to elaboration – as a function of certain embodied states. This study examines bodily manipulations that could alter perceptions about the quality of the information describing a target (e.g. notion of “hard/soft” evidence), and, find that such an embodiment leads one to have strong attitudes toward the target object. This study proposes an attitude-rehearsal-based mechanism to explain the phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach This study have relied on lab experiments as a methodology – undergraduate students and American residents served as participants. This study have conducted a pre-registered study as well. Findings In the work, the study shows that strong attitudes can result from processes not just limited to elaboration, as a function of certain embodied states. This paper examines bodily manipulations that could alter perceptions about the quality of information describing the target (e.g. notion of “hard vs soft”; “converging vs diverging” information), and, find that such an embodiment leads one to have strong attitudes toward the target. This study consistently observed that the bodily manipulations influence attitude accessibility, a direct and operational indicator of attitude strength. This study further validates an attitude-rehearsal-based mechanism to explain the observed phenomenon. Originality/value While much work has investigated the impact of embodiment on attitudes, little attention has been paid to whether, and, how embodied states can impact the “strength” of the attitude without impacting the attitude itself – to the knowledge, this paper is the first to document this. Moreover, traditionally, it has been held that strong attitudes are a result of the conscious cognitive process of elaboration where one engages in effortful issue-relevant thinking. This study however shows that attitude strength can follow from processes not just limited to elaboration – as a function of certain embodied states.


1995 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
Granger Macy ◽  
Joan C. Neal

This study examined the effectiveness of conflict-generating decision-making techniques in the college classroom. Utiliz ing constructive conflict in classroom exercises may affect decision-making quality and student reactions. This study of undergraduate and graduate business students found significant difference in both the quality of the decisions and in student reactions to the techniques. The findings and discussion indicate the potential for appropriate use of structured decision-making techniques in the classroom.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1734-1747
Author(s):  
Danielle J Green ◽  
Alison Harris ◽  
Aleena Young ◽  
Catherine L Reed

We have a lifetime of experience interacting with objects we value. Although many economic theories represent valuation as a purely cognitive process independent of the sensorimotor system, embodied cognitive theory suggests that our memories for items’ value should be linked to actions we use to obtain them. Here, we investigated whether the value of real items was associated with specific directional movements toward or away from the body. Participants priced a set of food items to determine their values; they then used directional actions to classify each item as high- or low-value. To determine if value is linked to specific action mappings, movements were referenced either with respect to the object (push toward high-value items; pull away from low-value items) or the self (pull high-value items toward self; push low-value items away). Participants who were assigned (Experiment 1) or chose (Experiment 2) to use an object-referenced action mapping were faster than those using a self-referenced mapping. A control experiment (Experiment 3) using left/right movements found no such difference when action mappings were not toward/away from the body. These results indicate that directional actions toward items are associated with the representation of their value, suggesting an embodied component to economic choice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-139
Author(s):  
Kateřina Berková ◽  
Kristýna Krejčová ◽  
Alena Králová ◽  
Pavel Krpálek ◽  
Katarína Krpálková Krelová ◽  
...  

The research deals with the development of cognitive process dimensions in economic education. The aim is to research factors that influence academic achievement of students according to their intellectual level and grades. The researchers used quantitative design of research based on standardized assessment of intelligence and non-standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to analyse the pedagogical competences of the teachers of economic subjects from the students' point of view in close relation to the teaching management and the impact on the motivation to learn and the achievement of students in these subjects. The respondents were 277 Czech students aged 16-17 who were divided into groups according to their intellectual level and grades. The data were analysed by a correlation analysis and a multiple regression model. In conclusion, the following can be stated: (a) From the point of view of the above average intelligent students, expertise can be considered as an important competency of the teacher; teaching average intelligent students, communication and presentation skills seem to be important. (b) It is desirable to develop cognitive processes, critical thinking actively, to lead students to become aware of changes in their own thinking and to orient them towards mastery goals. (c) Particularly for students with weaker results it is necessary to create intrinsic motivation, which develops cognition and thus is able to develop higher cognitive dimensions further. The links between these areas are of utmost importance for education and, above all, for developing of students' scholarship. Each student can be educated, and it is necessary to influence them to develop their personality and all of their potential abilities. The conceptual four-sector model represents the initial pathway to lead students who are differentiated according to the intellectual level and academic achievement to the active development of thinking, learning and critical insight. Keywords: cognitive process dimensions, abstract visual thinking, intellectual level, motivation to learn, academic achievement.


Author(s):  
Evrim Çeltek

Information sources for business activities have changed greatly over the last decade principally as a result of the impact of latest media and technologies. The utility of written media, like guides and brochures has been questioned. Traditional communication techniques are decreasing effectiveness and marketers are seeking inventive application to draw in customer. Advergames are a kind of branded entertainment that features advertising messages, logos and trade character in a game format and mobile advergames use interactive mobile multimedia system to make interactive entertainment that advertises or promotes product or services by embedding brand messages within the game action. Therefore, the potential effects of interactive promotions like advergame and mobile advergame on tourist's higher cognitive process and behavior is also important. The aim of this study is to supply an understanding of the qualities and potentials of the mobile advergame as an advertising and promoting tool for the tourism business.


Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Robé

The Chapter addresses the need to cope with firms as participants in the World Power System. « Agency theory » has led to biased firm governance. The bias extends to accounting rules which do not provide a full picture of the impact of a firm’s operations and actually prevents firms from adapting their ways to the requirements of today’s predicament. Addressing world issues such as climate change requires the making of decisions to change our ways of producing, travelling and consuming. In an open economy, the competition among large business firms derivatively leads to a race to the bottom among States to offer firms accommodating legal environments. This limits the States’ ability to internalize negative externalities and to redistribute income. Given the inherent defects of our divided State System, it is at the firm level that governmental rules must be developed so that firms consider the consequences of their activities to a larger extend than they do today. Economic decisions within organizations are made on the basis of the accounting of their operations. To change the decisions they make, we need to amend the ways organizations account for their operations.


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