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16 - Computational Models of Decision Making

from Part III - Computational Modeling of Basic Cognitive Functionalities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2023

By
Joseph G. Johnson  and
Jerome R. Busemeyer
Edited by
Ron Sun
Ron Sun
Affiliation:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York
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Summary

This chapter introduces computational models of decision making as worthy successors to the traditional, algebraic utility framework that has dominated the field. It provides an overview of several different computational modeling approaches before providing a detailed example of perhaps the most well-established of these, based on sequential sampling of information and evidence accumulation. It is shown how this approach can account for common paradoxes in decision behavior, and how it can be extended to a variety of tasks and response modes while retaining the same basic cognitive principles. The chapter concludes with an illustration of how process-tracing methods that capture the information acquisition and response processes can help to evaluate computational models of decision making and discriminate among them.

Keywords

decision makingsequential samplingprocess tracingchoicedynamic
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Cognitive Sciences , pp. 499 - 526
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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