Technical Program

Paper Detail

Paper: PS-2B.11
Session: Poster Session 2B
Location: Symphony/Overture
Session Time: Friday, September 7, 19:30 - 21:30
Presentation Time:Friday, September 7, 19:30 - 21:30
Presentation: Poster
Publication: 2018 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, 5-8 September 2018, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Paper Title: Value-conflict and volatility influence distinct decision-making processes
Manuscript:  Click here to view manuscript
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32470/CCN.2018.1068-0
Authors: Krista Bond, Kyle Dunovan, Timothy Verstynen, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Abstract: Humans are capable of quickly adapting their decisions using multiple sources of environmental uncertainty. Drawing inspiration from the underlying neural substrates of adaptive decision-making, we propose a dynamic cognitive model in which feedback signals regarding the relative state-action value (i.e., conflict in the probability of reward between two choices) and the reliability of reward contingencies (i.e., likelihood that target value has changed) uniquely target the rate of evidence accumulation (v) and the amount of evidence needed to gate a decision (a), respectively. We experimentally vetted this model using a variant of the two-armed bandit task (N = 20), in which the level of value-conflict and the volatility of reward contingencies were independently manipulated between conditions. Model simulations and behavioral responses were fit to a hierarchical drift diffusion model and both showed similar patterns of changes in v and a across conditions, providing prima facie evidence that distinct estimates of environmental uncertainty target distinct components of decision processes.