Dynamic Decision Making in Complex Task Environments: Principles and Neural Mechanisms

Abstract

We investigated the nature of human decision making in the leaky competing accumulator (LCA) model, a model that links behavior to underlying neural activity through abstract dynamical models in which noisy evidence is accumulated toward a decision, subject to leak and inhibition. The model predicts that evidence coming at different times can receive differential weight, and decisions outcomes should exhibit a mixture of discreteness and continuity. These predictions were confirmed across several studies using more complex task settings than previous studies. Additional studies investigated the optimization of decision making within a simplified reduction of the LCA, while others uncovered evidence establishing how differential payoff information affects decision making. Still other studies investigated the brain basis of decision making, using neuronal recording methods and noninvasive human brain activity measurement methods. Findings from these studies revealed that reward information can change the starting point of evidence integration and that evidence selection and integration are interwoven in the process of reaching a decision.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA581230

Entities

People

  • James McClelland
  • Jochen Ditterich
  • Philip Holmes
  • William Newsome

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Biological Sciences
  • Brain
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Science
  • Differential Equations
  • Electroencephalography
  • Information Processing
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Mathematical Models
  • Neuroimaging
  • Neurophysiology
  • Neurosciences
  • Probability
  • Psychology

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  • Neuroscience
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Theoretical Analysis.