Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics

Stochastic Decision Policy Is Optimal Under Costly Control

This paper shows that stochastic decision policies can be optimal when considering the cost of control, using sequential sampling and recovering policies in macaques.

Self-other value alignment shapes sustainable decisions

The paper investigates how self-other value alignment influences sustainable decisions through computational modeling, neuroimaging, and behavioral experiments.

How does explicit reliability guide choices? Effect of trustworthiness on choice and metacognition

The paper investigates how people use explicit reliability markers in decision-making and find they overestimate source reliability and are influenced by unreliable sources.

Task-specific preferences guide forward planning in sequential decision-making

The paper investigates how task-specific preferences influence forward planning in sequential decision-making, finding that preferences guide decisions even when forward planning is not used.

Deterministic dynamics of distributional multi-agent reinforcement learning

This paper develops a computational framework for distributional multi-agent reinforcement learning, showing how optimism, reward discretization, and temporal discounting interact to shape decision-making.

A dimensional link between gain-loss economic preferences and psychopathology

This study links multi-attribute economic preferences in decision-making to specific dimensions of psychopathology using a large sample and transdiagnostic symptom measures.

Suboptimal human inference reflects an efficient and flexible information bottleneck

The paper quantifies human inference variability using an information-bottleneck framework, finding that performance differences stem from variable information capacity while efficiency remains consistent.

Rapid Changes in Risk Attitudes Originate from Bayesian Inference on Parietal Magnitude Representations

The paper shows that rapid changes in risk attitudes arise from Bayesian inference on noisy magnitude representations in the parietal cortex, using fMRI and computational modeling.

Stochastic Procrastination and Optimal Task Division

This paper models procrastination as a self-consistent policy under hyperbolic discounting and shows how task division and breaks can reduce delay.

Goals shape human confidence

This study shows that confidence is shaped by decision goals, not just evidence, and introduces a model to explain this goal-dependent confidence formation.

Deciding when to decide: How recency, urgency, risk, and bias shape human sequential decision-making: A case study across the obsessive-compulsive spectrum

This study models human sequential decision-making under uncertainty, finding that subjective risk and time urgency drive choices, with variable contributions from recency biases in different conditions.

Trial-by-trial fluctuations in decision criterion shape confidence

The paper shows that trial-by-trial changes in decision criteria affect confidence in human decision-making across multiple datasets and measures.

A Computational Toolkit for Designing and Analysing Repeated Binary Choice Experiments

This paper introduces a computational framework for analyzing repeated binary choice experiments, revealing hidden decision patterns through advanced time series analysis methods.

Behavioral Economic Profiles in Theft Recidivists with and without Kleptomania

The paper compares behavioral economic profiles of theft recidivists with and without kleptomania, finding heightened loss aversion and price sensitivity in those with kleptomania.

Non-instrumental information has limited effects on bet size in risky decisions

This study replicates previous findings on non-instrumental information's effect on risk appetite and finds no consistent effect on bet size.

Sample size dependence of Occam's razor in human decision-making

This study investigates how humans balance model complexity and goodness-of-fit in decision-making, finding sublinear scaling of effective sample size rather than the normative linear scaling.

Acorn-omics: Optimal Foraging Behaviour Generates Steep Discounting and Preference Reversals in Laboratory Tasks

This paper develops a dynamic optimization model to show that steep discounting in laboratory tasks may result from artificial conditions, not natural foraging behavior.

Humans integrate gaze and decision cues for inferring preferences in social interactions

The paper shows humans use decision-process cues like response times and gaze to infer others' preferences during social interactions.

Dynamic optimism and pessimism states shape risk-taking behavior in monkeys

This study uses a computational model and machine learning to analyze monkey decision-making in risk-taking tasks, revealing dynamic optimism and pessimism states and a unique control rule for bias.

Altering facial preferences with context

This study investigates whether facial preferences can be influenced by context, finding that adding a decoy face increases selection of a target face by up to 7%.

Neural similarity between choice options predicts group-level context effects

The paper predicts group-level context effects in choices using neural similarity between options, outperforming traditional methods that rely on explicit attributes.

Behavioral Signatures of Post-Decisional Attention in Preferential Choice

This study reanalyzes food-choice datasets to test models of attention's role in decision-making, finding no support for multiplicative effects and proposing an alternative model that better explains gaze behavior.

Why do we seek information about the future? On the origins of subjective value without instrumental value

The paper explores why organisms seek information about the future despite lacking control, proposing that subjective value arises from adaptive solutions to computational problems in natural environments.

Goal-dependent resource-rational compression of attribute differences explains nonlinearities in multi-attribute decision making

The paper explains nonlinearities in multi-attribute decision making through resource-rational compression of value differences, supported by empirical tests on estimation tasks and existing datasets.

Attenuation of value-to-evidence translation drives biased decision making in anxiety and depression

The paper shows that anxiety and depression reduce value sensitivity during decision evidence accumulation, leading to biased decision making.

DfE-DB: A systematic database of 3.8 million human decisions across experience-based tasks

DfE-DB compiles 3.8 million human decisions across 168 studies to enable systematic comparison of decision-making patterns and design features.

Stochastic choice drives variability in patch foraging decisions in humans and rats

This study shows stochastic choice explains variability in patch foraging decisions in humans and rats, making leaving variability independent of environmental rewards and using suboptimal internal reward rate estimates.

Pupil and Neural Dynamics Reveal Belief-Dependent Decision Making Under Ambiguity

The paper shows that ambiguity aversion reflects diverse internal belief models and that physiological responses track subjective beliefs rather than objective task structure.

Confidence Judgments Reflect the Standard Error of Noisy Evidence Samples Across Domains

The paper shows people use statistically grounded strategies to form confidence judgments based on sample size and variability, leading to well-calibrated confidence and accuracy.

The Effect of Cognitive Load and Default Nudges on Decision-Making: Experimental Evidence from a Behavioural Study

This study examines how cognitive load and default nudges affect professional scepticism in auditing decisions, finding that aligned defaults improve accuracy under load while misaligned defaults reduce it.