scholarly journals The description-experience gap: a challenge for the neuroeconomics of decision-making under uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basile Garcia ◽  
Fabien Cerrotti ◽  
Stefano Palminteri
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Decision Making Under Uncertainty ◽  
Primate Research ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Decision Variables ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Human Primate

The experimental investigation of decision-making in humans relies on two distinct types of paradigms, involving either description- or experience-based choices. In description-based paradigms decision variables (i.e., payoffs and probabilities) are explicitly communicated by mean of symbols. In experience-based paradigms decision variables are learnt from trial-by-trial feedback. In the decision-making literature ‘description-experience gap’ refers to the fact that different biases are observed in the two experimental paradigms. Remarkably, well-documented biases of description-based choices, such as under-weighting of rare events and loss aversion, do not apply to experience-based decisions. Here we argue that the description-experience gap represents a major challenge, not only to current decision theories, but also to the neuroeconomics research framework, which reliesheavily on the translation of neurophysiological findings between human and non-human primate research. In fact, most non-human primate neurophysiological research relies on behavioural designs that share features of both description and experience-based choices. As a consequence, it is unclear whether the neural mechanisms discovered in non-human primate electrophysiology should be linked to description-based or experience-based decision-making processes. The picture is further complicated by additional methodological gaps between human and non-human primate neural research. After analysing these methodological challenges, we conclude proposing new lines of research to address them.

Linguistic Analysis of Clinical Communications

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esa Rantanen ◽  
Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm ◽  
Tracy Worrell ◽  
Nancy Valentage ◽  
Nick Iuliucci
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Decision Making Under Uncertainty ◽  
Clinical Consultation ◽  
Measurement Tools ◽  
Patterns Of Communication ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Patient Consultation

This project took a unique perspective on the investigation of decision making in healthcare by examining clinician-patient consultation using methods from linguistics and communication. Our goal was to identify cognitive and behavioral patterns in interactions of clinicians-in-trainings with patients that correspond to decision making processes in time constrained situations. Objective measures of clinician-patient communications in both naturalistic and simulated settings is a promising way to examine clinician decision making under uncertainty and time pressure, and to identify specific errors in decision making that may lead to misdiagnoses. We sought to detect distinguishable patterns of communication adopted by clinicians-in-training in clinical consultation settings under time pressure. A pilot study reported in this paper provides objective measurement tools to study miscommunication within clinician-patient consultations and may positively influence the treatments and services offered within patient consultations.

Unpacking Big Data in Education. A Research Framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Rosanna De Rosa ◽  
Biagio Aragona
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Abstract The use of big data represents a valuable way to inspire decision-making in a time of scarce resources. The technological revolution is in fact enabling governments to use a great variety of digital tools and data to manage all phases of the policy cycle process, becoming a core element for e-governance applications and techniques. However, research is seemingly not yet aligned yet with the hybrid environment that both public policies and politics are moving in, while the actors (old and new) and the decision-making processes themselves, in their searching for automation and objectivity, risk being overshadowed. Taking the case of Higher Education, this article proposes a research framework for big-data use to prompt the reflection on the power of “evidence” in decision making; to question and contextualize such evidences in a multimodal and integrated scenario, and to understand the challenges that data will pose to education both in terms of unforeseen and hidden effects.

scholarly journals No group differences in Traditional Economics Measures of loss aversion and framing effects in bipolar I disorder

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258360
Author(s):  
Zachary Anderson ◽  
Kim Fairley ◽  
Cynthia M. Villanueva ◽  
R. McKell Carter ◽  
June Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Bipolar I Disorder ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Gains And Losses ◽  
Survey Approach

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with impaired decision making, yet few studies have adopted paradigms from behavioral economics to decompose which, if any, aspects of decision making may be impacted. This may be particularly relevant for decision-making processes relevant to known difficulties with emotive dysfunction and corresponding reward dysregulation in BD. Participants with bipolar I disorder (BD; n = 44) and non-psychiatric healthy controls (CTL; n = 28) completed three well-validated behavioral economics decision making tasks via a remote-based survey, including loss aversion and framing effects, that examined sensitivity to probabilities and potential gains and losses in monetary and non-monetary domains. Consistent with past work, we found evidence of moderate loss aversion and framing effects across all participants. No group differences were found in any of the measures of loss aversion or framing effects. We report no group differences between bipolar and non-psychiatric groups with respect to loss aversion and framing effects using a remote-based survey approach. These results provide a framework future studies to explore similar tasks in clinical populations and suggest the context and degree to which decision making is altered in BD may be rooted in a more complex cognitive mechanism that warrants future research.

scholarly journals Spatial gradient in activity within the insula reflects dissociable neural mechanisms underlying context-dependent advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxue Gao ◽  
Hongbo Yu ◽  
Ignacio Saez ◽  
Philip R. Blue ◽  
Lusha Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Inequity Aversion ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Spatial Gradient ◽  
Model Free ◽  
Interpersonal Guilt ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Context Dependent

AbstractHumans are capable of integrating social contextual information into decision-making processes to adjust their attitudes towards inequity. This context-dependency emerges both when individual is better off (i.e. advantageous inequity) and worse off (i.e. disadvantageous inequity) than others. It is not clear however, whether the context-dependent processing of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity rely on dissociable or shared neural mechanisms. Here, by combining an interpersonal interactive game that gave rise to interpersonal guilt and different versions of the dictator games that enabled us to characterize individual weights on aversion to advantageous and disadvantageous inequity, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the two forms of inequity aversion in the interpersonal guilt context. In each round, participants played a dot-estimation task with an anonymous co-player. The co-players received pain stimulation with 50% probability when anyone responded incorrectly. At the end of each round, participants completed a dictator game, which determined payoffs of him/herself and the co-player. Both computational model-based and model-free analyses demonstrated that when inflicting pain upon co-players (i.e., the guilt context), participants cared more about advantageous inequity and became less sensitive to disadvantageous inequity, compared with other social contexts. The contextual effects on two forms of inequity aversion are uncorrelated with each other at the behavioral level. Neuroimaging results revealed that the context-dependent representation of inequity aversion exhibited a spatial gradient in activity within the insula, with anterior parts predominantly involved in the aversion to advantageous inequity and posterior parts predominantly involved in the aversion to disadvantageous inequity. The dissociable mechanisms underlying the two forms of inequity aversion are further supported by the involvement of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in advantageous inequity processing, and the involvement of right amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in disadvantageous inequity processing. These results extended our understanding of decision-making processes involving inequity and the social functions of inequity aversion.

Business Ethics and the Brain: Rommel Salvador and Robert G. Folger

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rommel Salvador ◽  
Robert G. Folger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Ethics Training ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACT:Neuroethics, the study of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying ethical decision-making, is a growing field of study. In this review, we identify and discuss four themes emerging from neuroethics research. First, ethical decision-making appears to be distinct from other types of decision-making processes. Second, ethical decision-making entails more than just conscious reasoning. Third, emotion plays a critical role in ethical decision-making, at least under certain circumstances. Lastly, normative approaches to morality have distinct, underlying neural mechanisms. On the basis of these themes, we draw implications for research in business ethics and the practice of ethics training.

Influence of Expected Reward on Temporal Order Judgment

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 674-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Rakhshan ◽  
Vivian Lee ◽  
Emily Chu ◽  
Lauren Harris ◽  
Lillian Laiks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Temporal Order Judgment ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Reward Effects

Perceptual decision-making has been shown to be influenced by reward expected from alternative options or actions, but the underlying neural mechanisms are currently unknown. More specifically, it is debated whether reward effects are mediated through changes in sensory processing, later stages of decision-making, or both. To address this question, we conducted two experiments in which human participants made saccades to what they perceived to be either the first or second of two visually identical but asynchronously presented targets while we manipulated expected reward from correct and incorrect responses on each trial. By comparing reward-induced bias in target selection (i.e., reward bias) during the two experiments, we determined whether reward caused changes in sensory or decision-making processes. We found similar reward biases in the two experiments indicating that reward information mainly influenced later stages of decision-making. Moreover, the observed reward biases were independent of the individual's sensitivity to sensory signals. This suggests that reward effects were determined heuristically via modulation of decision-making processes instead of sensory processing. To further explain our findings and uncover plausible neural mechanisms, we simulated our experiments with a cortical network model and tested alternative mechanisms for how reward could exert its influence. We found that our experimental observations are more compatible with reward-dependent input to the output layer of the decision circuit. Together, our results suggest that, during a temporal judgment task, reward exerts its influence via changing later stages of decision-making (i.e., response bias) rather than early sensory processing (i.e., perceptual bias).

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 Neural Mechanisms of Criminal Decision Making in Adolescence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard T. Klapwijk ◽  
Wouter van den Bos ◽  
Berna Güroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Peer Influence ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Affective Deficits ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Adolescence is a time of change in which there is an increase and peak in criminal behavior. This chapter discusses the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying criminal decision making in adolescents. First, it provides a brief overview of the neural basis of decision making in typically developing adolescents. Second, it discusses studies that examine decision-making processes in delinquent and antisocial adolescents compared to their typically developing peers. The chapter focuses on executive functioning and empathy, and it is concluded that delinquent and antisocial adolescents mainly display affective deficits. This is manifested in risky and impulsive decisions and in impaired sensitivity to the distress and perspectives of other people. Finally, the chapter argues that future research on criminal decision making in adolescence could benefit from focusing on subgroups of offenders and from including environmental factors such as peer influence in experimental designs.

Cognitive Processing of Miscommunication in Interactive Listening: An Evaluation of Listener Indecision and Cognitive Effort

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Roche ◽  
Arkady Zgonnikov ◽  
Laura M. Morett
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Mouse Tracking ◽  
Computer Mouse ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Computer Mouse Tracking ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
Processing Effort

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the social and cognitive underpinnings of miscommunication during an interactive listening task. Method An eye and computer mouse–tracking visual-world paradigm was used to investigate how a listener's cognitive effort (local and global) and decision-making processes were affected by a speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication. Results Experiments 1 and 2 found that an environmental cue that made a miscommunication more or less salient impacted listener language processing effort (eye-tracking). Experiment 2 also indicated that listeners may develop different processing heuristics dependent upon the speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication, exerting a significant impact on cognition and decision making. We also found that perspective-taking effort and decision-making complexity metrics (computer mouse tracking) predict language processing effort, indicating that instances of miscommunication produced cognitive consequences of indecision, thinking, and cognitive pull. Conclusion Together, these results indicate that listeners behave both reciprocally and adaptively when miscommunications occur, but the way they respond is largely dependent upon the type of ambiguity and how often it is produced by the speaker.

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