title: Dynamic Integration of Value Information into a Common Probability Currency as a Theory for Flexible Decision Making.
abstract: Decisions involve two fundamental problems, selecting goals and generating actions to pursue those goals. While simple decisions involve choosing a goal and pursuing it, humans evolved to survive in hostile dynamic environments where goal availability and value can change with time and previous actions, entangling goal decisions with action selection. Recent studies suggest the brain generates concurrent action-plans for competing goals, using online information to bias the competition until a single goal is pursued. This creates a challenging problem of integrating information across diverse types, including both the dynamic value of the goal and the costs of action. We model the computations underlying dynamic decision-making with disparate value types, using the probability of getting the highest pay-off with the least effort as a common currency that supports goal competition. This framework predicts many aspects of decision behavior that have eluded a common explanation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Vassilios
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Christopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America; Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Schrater
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011597:Psychomotor Performance