The value of time during decisions. This project aims to investigate how people value time during decision making. Using an innovative combination of carefully designed experiments and state-of-the-art mathematical cognitive models, this project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how efficiently people allocate time when making decisions, the factors that allow people to perform optimally and those that lead to suboptimal performance. The anticipated outcome of the project is a new fram ....The value of time during decisions. This project aims to investigate how people value time during decision making. Using an innovative combination of carefully designed experiments and state-of-the-art mathematical cognitive models, this project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how efficiently people allocate time when making decisions, the factors that allow people to perform optimally and those that lead to suboptimal performance. The anticipated outcome of the project is a new framework for understanding the optimality of human decision making. This outcome has the potential benefit of providing insight into decision mechanisms across a range of contexts, particularly ageing and models of applied decision making.Read moreRead less
Cognitive models of decision making in clinical populations. This cognitive science project aims to develop new methods for mathematical modelling of decision making, and to apply these methods to study decision making in people with problem drug use. Precise measures of the thought processes underlying decision making in drug users will help to direct efforts to prevent and treat drug problems.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101340
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$362,103.00
Summary
A new state of the art for understanding dynamic self-regulation. This project aims to develop and test a novel mathematical model that explains how people manage competing demands on their time and effort in a dynamic and uncertain environment. The project will use an integrative approach, bringing recent advances in mathematical psychology to bear on a problem of widespread interest within industrial and organisational psychology. The expected outcome is a quantitative theory that achieves a l ....A new state of the art for understanding dynamic self-regulation. This project aims to develop and test a novel mathematical model that explains how people manage competing demands on their time and effort in a dynamic and uncertain environment. The project will use an integrative approach, bringing recent advances in mathematical psychology to bear on a problem of widespread interest within industrial and organisational psychology. The expected outcome is a quantitative theory that achieves a level of precision, generality, and testability that is unmatched in the field. The project will provide the basic research that is needed to extend mathematical models of self-regulation to complex tasks involving rapid decision making.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100015
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,996.00
Summary
Understanding attitudes toward ambiguity: A multidimensional framework. This project aims to develop a comprehensive psychological framework and effective measures for assessing attitudes to ambiguity. Using empirical work and quantitative modelling, it will address the multidimensional nature of ambiguity, and likely individual and cultural differences. Attitudes to ambiguity strongly influence people's judgments and the expected outcomes from this project will enhance theoretical understandin ....Understanding attitudes toward ambiguity: A multidimensional framework. This project aims to develop a comprehensive psychological framework and effective measures for assessing attitudes to ambiguity. Using empirical work and quantitative modelling, it will address the multidimensional nature of ambiguity, and likely individual and cultural differences. Attitudes to ambiguity strongly influence people's judgments and the expected outcomes from this project will enhance theoretical understandings and measurement tools for psychological research in decision making. This project aims to provide significant benefits by developing novel strategies for improving decision making in contexts of ambiguity.Read moreRead less
Judgements and Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict. Little is known about how people make decisions when faced with uncertainties arising from information that is both ambiguous and conflicting, despite the fact that ambiguity and conflict frequently arise in real decision-making situations. In fact, virtually nothing is known about the joint impact of conflict and ambiguity on judgements of risk and uncertainty or on decisional preferences. This project will investigate how perceptions of un ....Judgements and Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict. Little is known about how people make decisions when faced with uncertainties arising from information that is both ambiguous and conflicting, despite the fact that ambiguity and conflict frequently arise in real decision-making situations. In fact, virtually nothing is known about the joint impact of conflict and ambiguity on judgements of risk and uncertainty or on decisional preferences. This project will investigate how perceptions of uncertainty are jointly affected by conflict and ambiguity in information, develop and test formal models of judgement and decision making under conflict and ambiguity, and examine the joint effects of ambiguity and conflict aversion on decision making.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100350
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,042.00
Summary
Decoding unstable decision preferences from brain activity. We often have to make decisions despite lacking clear preferences. This leaves us susceptible to biases from stimuli and information in our environment. This project investigates how simple, perceptual decisions and financial decisions are influenced by contextual information. The project will combine state-of-the-art neuroimaging technology with machine learning methods to develop a novel decision-decoding toolbox that directly predict ....Decoding unstable decision preferences from brain activity. We often have to make decisions despite lacking clear preferences. This leaves us susceptible to biases from stimuli and information in our environment. This project investigates how simple, perceptual decisions and financial decisions are influenced by contextual information. The project will combine state-of-the-art neuroimaging technology with machine learning methods to develop a novel decision-decoding toolbox that directly predicts decision outcomes from brain activity. This will allow investigation of how decision encoding in the brain changes under the influence of contextual information, and will provide the basis for developing an advanced model for human decision-making in real-life situations.Read moreRead less
The dog that didn't bark: a Bayesian account of reasoning from censored data. This project aims to develop and test a new computational theory of inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning involves extending knowledge from known to novel instances, and is a central component of intelligent behaviour. This project will address the cognitive mechanisms that allow people to draw inferences based on both observed and censored evidence. The project intends to test the model through an extensive program ....The dog that didn't bark: a Bayesian account of reasoning from censored data. This project aims to develop and test a new computational theory of inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning involves extending knowledge from known to novel instances, and is a central component of intelligent behaviour. This project will address the cognitive mechanisms that allow people to draw inferences based on both observed and censored evidence. The project intends to test the model through an extensive program of experimental investigation and computational modelling. The anticipated benefits include an enhanced understanding of human inference, especially in domains such as the evaluation of forensic or financial evidence, where data censoring is common.Read moreRead less
Zero-sum thinking: psychological predictors and causes. This project investigates the causes and psychological triggers of zero-sum thinking, the tendency to think that others' gains leave less for oneself. The results will enable negotiators and managers to defuse dysfunctional zero-sum thinking, thereby increasing the chances for cooperation and 'win-win' outcomes.
Uncovering the processes underlying human reasoning: A state-trace approach. This project aims to answer the most important unresolved question in the psychology of reasoning; how many distinct cognitive processes underlie human reasoning? To answer this question, this project aims to conduct an extensive experimental investigation of the factors that selectively impact inductive and deductive inferences and the application of high-dimensional state-trace analysis; a powerful new method for diag ....Uncovering the processes underlying human reasoning: A state-trace approach. This project aims to answer the most important unresolved question in the psychology of reasoning; how many distinct cognitive processes underlie human reasoning? To answer this question, this project aims to conduct an extensive experimental investigation of the factors that selectively impact inductive and deductive inferences and the application of high-dimensional state-trace analysis; a powerful new method for diagnosing underlying processes from behavioural data. The project is expected also to develop a new computational model that accounts for both inductive and deductive forms of reasoning.Read moreRead less
Choice models for learning and memory. Life is filled with familiar choices that often require quick decisions about objects in the environment and the contents of memory. This project examines how we learn to make rapid and accurate choices and how we quickly asses the level of confidence we have in recognition decisions based on our memories.