scholarly journals Sex differences in learning from exploration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy S. Chen ◽  
Evan Knep ◽  
Autumn Han ◽  
R. Becket Ebitz ◽  
Nicola M. Grissom
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Disorders ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Correct Performance ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Similar Accuracy

AbstractSex differences in cognitive processes could set the stage for sex-modulated vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders. While value-based decision making processes in particular have been proposed to be influenced by sex differences, the overall correct performance across sexes often show minimal differences. Computational tools allow us to uncover latent variables in reinforcement learning that define different decision making approaches, even in animals with similar correct performance. Here, we quantify sex differences in latent variables underlying behavior in a classic value-based decision-making task: a restless 2-armed bandit. While males and females had similar accuracy, they achieved this performance via different patterns of exploration. Males made more exploratory choices overall, largely because they appeared to get stuck in exploration once they had started. Females explored less, but learned more quickly when they did so. Together, these results suggest that sex exerts stronger influences on learning and decision making during periods of self-initiated exploration than during stable choices. These findings pinpoint the neural mechanisms of exploration as potentially conferring sex-biased vulnerability to addictions, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals Sex differences in learning from exploration

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy S Chen ◽  
Evan Knep ◽  
Autumn Han ◽  
R Becket Ebitz ◽  
Nicola Grissom
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Female Mice ◽  
Correct Performance ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Similar Accuracy

Sex-based modulation of cognitive processes could set the stage for individual differences in vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders. While value-based decision making processes in particular have been proposed to be influenced by sex differences, the overall correct performance in decision making tasks often show variable or minimal differences across sexes. Computational tools allow us to uncover latent variables that define different decision making approaches, even in animals with similar correct performance. Here, we quantify sex differences in mice in the latent variables underlying behavior in a classic value-based decision making task: a restless 2-armed bandit. While male and female mice had similar accuracy, they achieved this performance via different patterns of exploration. Male mice tended to make more exploratory choices overall, largely because they appeared to get 'stuck' in exploration once they had started. Female mice tended to explore less but learned more quickly during exploration. Together, these results suggest that sex exerts stronger influences on decision making during periods of learning and exploration than during stable choices. Exploration during decision making is altered in people diagnosed with addictions, depression, and neurodevelopmental disabilities, pinpointing the neural mechanisms of exploration as a highly translational avenue for conferring sex-modulated vulnerability to neuropsychiatric diagnoses.

scholarly journals Risk-based Decision Making in Rats: Modulation by Sex and Amphetamine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dannia Islas-Preciado ◽  
Steven R. Wainwright ◽  
Julia Sniegocki ◽  
Stephane E. Lieblich ◽  
Shunya Yagi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Gonadal Hormones ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
17Β Estradiol ◽  
Males And Females

AbstractDecision-making is a complex process essential to daily adaptation in many species. Risk is an inherent aspect of decision-making and it is influenced by gonadal hormones. Testosterone and 17β-estradiol may modulate decision making and impact the mesocorticolimbic dopamine pathway. Here, we explored sex differences, the effect of gonadal hormones and the dopamine agonist amphetamine on risk-based decision making. Intact or gonadectomised (GDX) male and female rats underwent to a probabilistic discounting task. High and low doses of testosterone propionate (1.0 or 0.2 mg) and 17β-estradiol benzoate (0.3 μg) were administered to assess acute effects on risk-based decision making. After 3-days of washout period, intact and GDX rats received high or low (0.5 or 0.125 mg/kg) doses of amphetamine and re-tested in the probabilistic discounting task. Under baseline conditions, males made more risky choices during probability discounting compared to female rats, particularly in the lower probability blocks, but GDX did not influence risky choice. The high, but not the low dose, of testosterone modestly reduced risky decision making in GDX male rats. Conversely, 17β-estradiol had no significant effect on risky choice regardless of GDX status in either sex. Lastly, a higher dose of amphetamine increased risky decision making in both intact males and females, but had no effect in GDX rats. These findings demonstrated sex differences in risk-based decision making, with males showing a stronger bias towards larger, uncertain rewards. GDX status influenced the effects of amphetamine, suggesting different dopaminergic regulation in risk-based choices among males and females.

scholarly journals Pathways to Implementation: Evidence on How Participation in Environmental Governance Impacts on Environmental Outcomes

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas W Jager ◽  
Jens Newig ◽  
Edward Challies ◽  
Elisa Kochskämper
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Environmental Standard ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Modes Of Governance

Abstract There is much enthusiasm among scholars and public administrators for participatory and collaborative modes of governance as a means to tackle contemporary environmental problems. Participatory and collaborative approaches are expected to both enhance the environmental standard of the outputs of decision-making processes and improve the implementation of these outputs. In this article, we draw on a database of 307 coded published cases of public environmental decision-making to identify key pathways via which participation fosters effective environmental governance. We develop a conceptual model of the hypothesized relationship between participation, environmental outputs, and implementation, mediated by intermediate (social) outcomes such as social learning or trust building. Testing these assumptions through structural equation modeling and exploratory factor analysis, we find a generally positive effect of participation on the environmental standard of governance outputs, in particular where communication intensity is high and where participants are delegated decision-making power. Moreover, we identify two latent variables—convergence of stakeholder perspectives and stakeholder capacity building—to mediate this relationship. Our findings point to a need for treating complex and multifaceted phenomena such as participation in a nuanced manner, and to pay attention to how particular mechanisms work to foster a range of social outcomes and to secure more environmentally effective outputs and their implementation.

scholarly journals A Theory of Guilt Appeals: A Review Showing the Importance of Investigating Cognitive Processes as Mediators between Emotion and Behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Aurélien Graton ◽  
Melody Mailliez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
And Behavior

Guilt appeals in the field of persuasion are quite common. However, the effectiveness of these messages is sometimes ambivalent. It is widely acknowledged that guilt leads people to engage into prosocial behaviors, but the effects of guilt can also be counter-productive (e.g., reactance-like effects). We argue that the explanations for these contradictions remain unsatisfactory and suggest that taking into account the implications of underlying cognitive—especially attentional—mechanisms would provide a better understanding of these paradoxical outcomes. This article provides a brief review of the literature on the link between guilt and pro-social behaviors and its classical interpretations. We propose a reinterpretation of this link by taking into account specific attentional processes triggered by the emotion of guilt. Attentional biases are, in our opinion, better predictors of the effectiveness of a message than the amount of emotion induced by the same message. This consideration should guide future research in the field of guilt appeals and pro-social behaviors. Implications, in terms of a broader comprehension of the emotion–behavior association in decision making processes, are discussed.

Cognitive Model of Team Collaboration: Macro-Cognitive Focus

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Warner ◽  
Michael Letsky ◽  
Michael Cowen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Distributed Teams ◽  
Descriptive Model ◽  
Team Collaboration ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes

The purpose of this paper is to describe a cognitive model of team collaboration emphasizing the human decision-making processes used during team collaboration. The descriptive model includes the domain characteristics, collaboration stages, meta- and macro cognitive processes and the mechanisms for achieving the stages and cognitive processes. Two experiments were designed to provide empirical data on the validity of the collaboration stages and cognitive processes of the model. Both face-to-face and asynchronous, distributed teams demonstrated behavior that supports the existence of the collaboration stages along with seven cognitive processes.

Cognitive Process Elements of People Decision-Making

2019 ◽  
pp. 602-611
Author(s):  
Thais Spiegel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Corporate Context ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Process Elements

The ability to make choices is regarded as essential to human action and to modern life, individually, collectively, and in the corporate context, and is crucial to the concept of freedom. This chapter examines individual decision-making processes. In this respect, it is important to distinguish between the task of deciding, described as a system of events and relationships in the external, “objective” world and the system of cognitive processes that take place in the “psychological world.” The study of decision making has a long history that spans a variety of perspectives, philosophical positions, and prescriptions—amidst a great deal of controversy—that have evolved into descriptive processes and approximated how decisions are actually taken. This exploratory study builds on the premise that, in order for decision making to be understood completely and improved, the underlying cognitive processes must be examined. It thus sets out to identify how decision making is shaped by the cognitive processes of the agents involved.

Judging the World Dialectically versus Non-Dialectically

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiko Masuda ◽  
Liman Man Wai Li ◽  
Matthew J. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Thinking Styles ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
North Americans ◽  
Analytical Thinking ◽  
Meaning Systems ◽  
Decision Making Processes

For over three decades, cultural psychologists have advocated the importance of cultural meaning systems and their effects on basic modes of perception and cognition. This chapter reviews findings which have demonstrated that culturally dominant ways of thinking influence people’s basic perceptual and cognitive processes: East Asians are more likely to endorse holistic thinking and dialectical thinking style when they process information, such that they incorporate more contextual information into their judgments of focal objects, and North Americans are more likely to endorse non-dialectical thinking and analytical thinking styles, by focusing on foreground information. The chapter also reviews recent findings related to higher cognitive processes in judgments and decision making processes. It emphasizes two lines of research showing how cultural differences in perception and cognition affect the online decision making process, one involving various online processes in decision making and the other involving how cultures experience indecisiveness in their decisions. Finally, this chapter introduces recent findings highlighting how cultural differences in perception and cognition affect how people make judgments involved in resource allocation, how cultural consistency values affect personality judgments, and how memory judgments are affected by neural cues. To close, it discusses the importance of this line of research and its future directions.

scholarly journals One week of chronic sleep debt does not affect decision-making processes in a mouse version of the Iowa Gambling Task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsa Pittaras ◽  
Sylvie Granon ◽  
Arnaud Rabat
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Sleep Debt ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Set Up ◽  
High Level ◽  
Chronic Sleep

SummarySocio-professional pressures push people to sleep less which leads to chronic sleep debt (CSD) for a significant percentage of the population. Although the health consequences of CSD are well known, research shows that high-level cognitive processes in humans are more affected by acute sleep debt (ASD) rather than CSD (Drake et al., 2001). We have previously shown that ASD has deleterious effects on decision-making in mice and that some mice were more sensitive to ASD than others (Pittaras et al., 2018) by using a rodent version of the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara et al., 1994). In this study, we showed that, as in humans, CSD has fewer effects on decision-making compared to ASD. We hypothesize that this observation was due to the set-up of a compensatory mechanism.

scholarly journals Decision-Making Processes Underlying Pedestrian Behaviors at Signalized Crossing: Part 1. The First to Step off the Kerb

Safety ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelé ◽  
Deneubourg ◽  
Sueur
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Risk Sensitivity ◽  
The Road ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Rule Breaking

Pedestrians are ideal subjects for the study of decision-making, due to the inter-individual variation in risk taking. Many studies have attempted to understand which environmental factors influence the number of times pedestrians broke the rules at road-crossings, very few focused on the decision-making process of pedestrians according to the different conditions of these variables, that is to say their perception and interpretation of the information they receive. We used survival analyses and modeling to highlight the decision-making process of pedestrians crossing the road at signalized crossings in France and in Japan. For the first pedestrians to step off the kerb, we showed that the probability to cross the road follows three different processes: one at the red signal, one just before the pedestrian signal turns green, and one after the signal has turned green. Globally, the decision of the first pedestrian to cross, whether he or she does so at the green or at the red signal, is influenced by their country of residence. We identify the use of cognitive processes such as risk sensitivity and temporal discounting, and propose new concepts based on the results of this study to decrease the incidence of rule-breaking by pedestrians.

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