Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics

Trading Mental Effort for Confidence in the Metacognitive Control of Value-Based Decision-Making

This paper introduces a computational model of metacognitive control in value-based decision-making, linking mental effort, confidence, and preference reversals through an effort-confidence tradeoff.

Vicarious trial-and-error is enhanced during deliberation in human virtual navigation in a translational neuroeconomic task

This study tests new virtual navigation tasks to compare human and rodent decision-making, finding shared behavioral correlates of deliberation and links to BMI but not smoking.

Negative Affect Induces Rapid Learning of Counterfactual Representations: A Model-based Facial Expression Analysis Approach

This study uses generative models and facial expression analysis to show that negative affect enhances learning of counterfactual representations and behavioral change.

Dynamic prospect theory - two core economic decision theories coexist in the gambling behavior of monkeys

This paper combines prospect theory and reinforcement learning to model gambling behavior in monkeys, finding that probability weighting changes dynamically with reward prediction error.

Reliability assessment of temporal discounting measures in virtual reality environments

This study assesses the reliability of temporal discounting tasks in VR environments, finding good to excellent reliability for discount rate parameters but mixed results for other measures.

Optimal policy for attention-modulated decisionsexplains human fixation behavior

The paper develops a decision-making model that explains human fixation behavior by showing how attention modulates information reliability and optimizes cognitive resource allocation.

A Comparison of Pruning During Multi-Step Planning in Depressed and Healthy Individuals

This study compares pruning behaviors in depressed and healthy individuals during multi-step decision-making but finds no group differences or relationship between pruning and depressive symptoms.

Automatic and fast encoding of representational uncertainty underlies probability distortion

The paper shows the brain automatically encodes representational uncertainty in probability judgments, linking it to probability distortion behavior.

Confirmation bias is adaptive when coupled with efficient metacognition

The paper shows that confirmation bias can be adaptive when paired with strong metacognition, improving decision-making through selective information processing.

Parameter-dependent shift from rational to irrational decisions in mice

This study investigates decision-making in mice by analyzing how cost and benefit parameters influence rationality, finding that cost parameters and sunk cost effects significantly contribute to suboptimal choices.

Simultaneous association of grip effort with snack food items does not change preferences

This study tests if associating grip effort with snack food items changes preferences, finding no effect across four experiments.

A pupillary index of susceptibility to decision biases

The paper shows that pupillary indices correlate with decision-making biases, with low neural gain linked to strong biases and high gain linked to reduced biases but increased indecisiveness.

Suboptimal human inference inverts the bias-variance trade-off for decisions with asymmetric evidence

The paper shows that humans use suboptimal inference strategies in rare-event tasks, inverting the bias-variance trade-off compared to optimal Bayesian strategies.

Primate anterior insular cortex represents economic decision variables postulated by Prospect theory

This study shows that primate anterior insular cortex encodes economic decision variables as described by Prospect Theory, including reference points and asymmetric value functions.

Discrete confidence levels revealed by sequential decisions

The paper introduces a dual-decisions method to infer confidence without explicit valuation, showing human confidence levels are discrete rather than continuous.

An empirical test of the role of value certainty in decision making

This study tests whether value certainty, not just value difference, affects decision-making accuracy, confidence, and response time.

The bounded rationality of probability distortion

This paper introduces a Bounded Log-Odds Model to explain probability and relative frequency distortions in decision-making and shows it outperforms alternative models.

Value Certainty in Drift-Diffusion Models of Preferential Choice

The paper extends the drift-diffusion model to include value certainty, showing it better explains choice consistency and response time in empirical data.

The Cost of Appearing Suspicious? Information Gathering in Trust Decisions

This study investigates how people gather information about trustworthiness, finding that participants avoid appearing suspicious by sampling less when the trustee learns about their inquiries.

Investigating the origin and consequences of endogenous default options in repeated economic choices.

This study investigates endogenous default options in economic choices, revealing two distinct biases: natural preference for certain options and learned defaults from past choices.

A normative account of choice history effects in mice and humans

This study investigates choice history effects in mice and humans, showing they are adaptive and linked to optimal foraging strategies, and introduces a new reinforcement learning model that better predicts behavior.

Rapid, precise, and reliable phenotyping of delay discounting using a Bayesian learning algorithm

This study evaluates a Bayesian adaptive design optimization method for measuring delay discounting, showing higher reliability, precision, and efficiency compared to a conventional staircase method across three populations.

Subjective optimality in finite sequential decision-making

The paper investigates suboptimal decision-making in sequential tasks using a dynamic programming model and physiological measures.

Biased belief updating and suboptimal choice in foraging decisions

The paper examines how individuals update beliefs and make choices in foraging scenarios, finding that they exhibit biased belief updating leading to suboptimal decisions.

Dissociable mechanisms govern when and how strongly reward attributes affect decisions

This study investigates how the timing and weighting of reward attributes influence decision-making using a time-varying drift diffusion model and experimental data.

Experimentally revealed stochastic preferences for multi-component choice options

The paper investigates how humans and monkeys make choices between multi-component rewards, showing that preferences can be represented as single-dimensional trade-offs using indifference curves and validated by machine learning.

Choosing what we like vs liking what we choose:How choice-induced preference change might actually be instrumental to decision-making.

This paper investigates choice-induced preference change (CIPC) and challenges the cognitive dissonance theory by proposing it results from value representation refinement during decision-making, supported by behavioral experiments.

Decomposing Loss Aversion from Gaze Allocation and Pupil Dilation

This study decomposes loss aversion into valuation and response biases using computational modeling and physiological biomarkers like gaze and pupil dilation.

Saccade vigor partly reflects the subjective economic value of the visual stimulus

The paper shows that saccade vigor correlates with subjective value of visual stimuli, but only partially predicts choice behavior.

Effects of episodic future thinking on temporal discounting: a re-analysis of six data sets using hierarchical Bayesian parameter estimation and compilation of effect sizes

The paper re-analyzes six temporal discounting datasets using hierarchical Bayesian methods, finding consistent reductions in discounting with medium effect sizes from episodic future thinking.