scholarly journals Naturalistic decision-making: continuous, open-world, and recursive

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Benjamin Hayden ◽  
John Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Microeconomic Theory ◽  
Naturalistic Decision Making ◽  
Open World ◽  
Engineering Control ◽  
Choice Sets ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Real-world decisions take place over time, in dynamics contexts, and with frequently shifting choice sets. In contrast, most studies of decision making have focused on single, abstracted choices among small numbers of discrete options. Here, we advocate for a shift in emphasis to what we call continuous decisions, which better capture the complexity of decision-making in the wild. Continuous decisions involve a continuum of possible responses and take place over an extended period of time during which the response is continuously subject to modification. The range of options available at any time can fluctuate and is affected by recent responses, making consideration of feedback between choices and the environment essential. The study of continuous decisions emphasizes distinct questions not easily captured by discrete decisions, including questions about how the brain integrates choices with movement, bridges representations through time, and maintains hierarchically organized information. While microeconomic theory has proven invaluable for discrete decisions, we propose that engineering control theory may serve as a better foundation for continuous ones. And while the concept of value has proven foundational for discrete decisions, goal states and policies may prove more useful for continuous ones.

Continuous Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Benjamin Hayden ◽  
John Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Microeconomic Theory ◽  
Engineering Control ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Academic Study

Humans and other animals evolved to make decisions that extend over time with continuous and ever-changing options. Nonetheless, the academic study of decision-making is mostly limited to the simple case of choice between two options. Here we advocate that the study of choice should expand to include continuous decisions. Continuous decisions, by our definition, involve a continuum of possible responses and take place over an extended period of time during which the response is continuously subject to modification. In most continuous decisions, the range of options can fluctuate and is affected by recent responses, making consideration of reciprocal feedback between choices and the environment essential. The study of continuous decisions raises new questions, such as how abstract processes of valuation and comparison are co-implemented with action planning and execution, how we simulate the large number of possible futures our choices lead to, and how our brains employ hierarchical structure to make choices more efficiently. While microeconomic theory has proven invaluable for discrete decisions, we propose that engineering control theory may serve as a better foundation for continuous ones. And while the concept of value has proven foundational for discrete decisions, goal states and policies may prove more useful for continuous ones.

scholarly journals Strategy-dependent effects of working-memory limitations on human perceptual decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyra Schapiro ◽  
Kresimir Josic ◽  
Zachary Kilpatrick ◽  
Joshua I Gold
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Decision Variable ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Human Psychophysics ◽  
Decision Variables ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Deliberative decisions based on an accumulation of evidence over time depend on working memory, and working memory has limitations, but how these limitations affect deliberative decision-making is not understood. We used human psychophysics to assess the impact of working-memory limitations on the fidelity of a continuous decision variable. Participants decided the average location of multiple visual targets. This computed, continuous decision variable degraded with time and capacity in a manner that depended critically on the strategy used to form the decision variable. This dependence reflected whether the decision variable was computed either: 1) immediately upon observing the evidence, and thus stored as a single value in memory; or 2) at the time of the report, and thus stored as multiple values in memory. These results provide important constraints on how the brain computes and maintains temporally dynamic decision variables.

scholarly journals Forgetting Enhances Episodic Control with Structured Memories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annik Yalnizyan-Carson ◽  
Blake A Richards
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Capacity Limitations ◽  
Memory Cache ◽  
Learning Agent ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Forgetting is a normal process in healthy brains, and evidence suggests that the mammalian brain forgets more than is required based on limitations of mnemonic capacity. Episodic memories, in particular, are liable to be forgotten over time. Researchers have hypothesized that it may be beneficial for decision making to forget episodic memories over time. Reinforcement learning offers a normative framework in which to test such hypotheses. Here, we show that a reinforcement learning agent that uses an episodic memory cache to find rewards in maze environments can forget a large percentage of older memories without any performance impairments, if they utilize mnemonic representations that contain structural information about space. Moreover, we show that some forgetting can actually provide a benefit in performance compared to agents with unbounded memories. Our analyses of the agents show that forgetting reduces the influence of outdated information and states which are not frequently visited on the policies produced by the episodic control system. These results support the hypothesis that some degree of forgetting can be beneficial for decision making, which can help to explain why the brain forgets more than is required by capacity limitations.

The Normalization of Consumer Valuations: Context-Dependent Preferences From Neurobiological Constraints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Webb ◽  
Paul W. Glimcher ◽  
Kenway Louie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Choice Behaviour ◽  
Divisive Normalization ◽  
Choice Sets ◽  
Observed Behaviour ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Choice Set

Consumer valuations are shaped by choice sets, exemplified by patterns of substitution between alternatives as choice sets are varied. Building on recent neuroeconomic evidence that valuations are transformed during the choice process, we incorporate the canonical divisive normalization computation into a discrete choice model and characterize how choice behaviour depends on both size and composition of the choice set. We then examine evidence for such behaviour from two choice experiments that vary the size and composition of the choice set. We find that divisive normalization more accurately captures observed behaviour than alternative models, including an example range normalization model. These results are robust across experimental paradigms. Finally, we demonstrate that Divisive Normalization implements an efficient means for the brain to represent valuations given neurobiological constraints, yielding the fewest choice errors possible given those constraints. This paper was accepted by Elke Weber, judgment and decision making.

scholarly journals It's about Space, It's about Time, Neuroeconomics and the Brain Sublime

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke van Rooij ◽  
Guy Van Orden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Brain Dynamics ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Contemporary Status ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Neuroeconomics has investigated which regions of the brain are associated with the factors contributing to economic decision making, emphasizing the position in space of brain areas associated with the factors of decision making—cognitive or emotive, rational or irrational. An alternative view of the brain has given priority to time over space, investigating the temporal patterns of brain dynamics to determine the nature of the brain's intrinsic dynamics, how its various activities change over time. These two ways of approaching the brain are contrasted in this essay to gauge the contemporary status of neuroeconomics.

scholarly journals Safety of Catheter Embolization of Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations—Evaluation of Possible Cerebrovascular Embolism after Catheter Embolization of Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations in Patients with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia/Osler Disease by Pre- and Post-Interventional DWI

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 887
Author(s):  
Guenther Schneider ◽  
Alexander Massmann ◽  
Peter Fries ◽  
Felix Frenzel ◽  
Arno Buecker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arteriovenous Malformations ◽  
Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations ◽  
B Values ◽  
Safe Method ◽  
Embolization Therapy ◽  
Catheter Embolization ◽  
Contrast Enhanced ◽  
Previously Treated ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Background. This paper aimed to prospectively evaluate the safety of embolization therapy of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) for the detection of cerebral infarctions by pre- and post-interventional MRI. Method One hundred and five patients (male/female = 44/61; mean age 48.6+/−15.8; range 5–86) with pre-diagnosed PAVMs on contrast-enhanced MRA underwent embolization therapy. The number of PAVMs treated in each patient ranged from 1–8 PAVMs. Depending on the size and localization of the feeding arteries, either Nester-Coils or Amplatzer vascular plugs were used for embolization therapy. cMRI was performed immediately before, and at the 4 h and 3-month post-embolization therapy. Detection of peri-interventional cerebral emboli was performed via T2w and DWI sequences using three different b-values, with calculation of ADC maps. Results Embolization did not show any post-/peri-interventional, newly developed ischemic lesions in the brain. Only one patient who underwent re-embolization and was previously treated with tungsten coils that corroded over time showed newly developed, small, diffuse emboli in the post-interventional DWI sequence. This patient already had several episodes of brain emboli before re-treatment due to the corroded coils, and during treatment, when passing the corroded coils, experienced additional small, clinically inconspicuous brain emboli. However, this complication was anticipated but accepted, since the vessel had to be occluded distally. Conclusion Catheter-based embolization of PAVMs is a safe method for treatment and does not result in clinically inconspicuous cerebral ischemia, which was not demonstrated previously.

Exploring the Differences in Macrocognition Between Experts and Non-CHD Experts Managing Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 335-339
Author(s):  
Azadeh Assadi ◽  
Peter C. Laussen ◽  
Patricia Trbovich
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
Congenital Heart Disease ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Congenital Heart ◽  
Pediatric Emergency ◽  
Acute Management ◽  
Naturalistic Decision Making ◽  
The Face

Background and aims: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk of deterioration in the face of common childhood illnesses, and their resuscitation and acute management is often best achieved with the guidance of CHD experts. Access to such expertise may be limited outside specialty heart centers and the fragility of these patients is cause for discomfort among many emergency medicine physicians. An understanding of the differences in macrocognition of these clinicians could shed light on some of the causes of discomfort and facilitate the development of a sociotechnological solution to this problem. Methods: Cardiac intensivists (CHD experts) and pediatric emergency medicine physicians (non-CHD experts) in a major academic cardiac center were interviewed using the critical decision method. Interview transcripts were coded deductively based on Klein’s macrocognitive framework and inductively to allow for new or modified characterization of dimensions. Results: While both CHD-experts and non-CHD experts relied on the macrocognitive functions of sensemaking, naturalistic decision making and detecting problems, the specific data and mental models used to understand the patients and course of therapy differed between CHD-experts and non-CHD experts. Conclusion: Characterization of differences between the macrocognitive processes of CHD experts and non-CHD experts can inform development of sociotechnological solutions to augment decision making pertaining to the acute management of pediatric CHD patients.

scholarly journals The Biography of an Algorithm: Performing algorithmic technologies in organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 263178772110046
Author(s):  
Vern L. Glaser ◽  
Neil Pollock ◽  
Luciana D’Adderio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Over Time

Algorithms are ubiquitous in modern organizations. Typically, researchers have viewed algorithms as self-contained computational tools that either magnify organizational capabilities or generate unintended negative consequences. To overcome this limited understanding of algorithms as stable entities, we propose two moves. The first entails building on a performative perspective to theorize algorithms as entangled, relational, emergent, and nested assemblages that use theories—and the sociomaterial networks they invoke—to automate decisions, enact roles and expertise, and perform calculations. The second move entails building on our dynamic perspective on algorithms to theorize how algorithms evolve as they move across contexts and over time. To this end, we introduce a biographical perspective on algorithms which traces their evolution by focusing on key “biographical moments.” We conclude by discussing how our performativity-inspired biographical perspective on algorithms can help management and organization scholars better understand organizational decision-making, the spread of technologies and their logics, and the dynamics of practices and routines.

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