Heuristics in Risky Decision-making Relate to Preferential Representation of Information

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 May 20

PMID 38769095

Authors

Evan M Russek

Rani Moran

Yunzhe Liu

Raymond J Dolan

Quentin J M Huys

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

When making choices, individuals differ from one another, as well as from normativity, in how they weigh different types of information. One explanation for this relates to idiosyncratic preferences in what information individuals represent when evaluating choice options. Here, we test this explanation with a simple risky-decision making task, combined with magnetoencephalography (MEG). We examine the relationship between individual differences in behavioral markers of information weighting and neural representation of stimuli pertinent to incorporating that information. We find that the extent to which individuals (N = 19) behaviorally weight probability versus reward information is related to how preferentially they neurally represent stimuli most informative for making probability and reward comparisons. These results are further validated in an additional behavioral experiment (N = 88) that measures stimulus representation as the latency of perceptual detection following priming. Overall, the results suggest that differences in the information individuals consider during choice relate to their risk-taking tendencies.

Citing Articles

Heuristics in risky decision-making relate to preferential representation of information.

Russek E, Moran R, Liu Y, Dolan R, Huys Q Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):4269.

PMID: 38769095 PMC: 11106265. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48547-z.

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