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1,032 results for “Decision making”
Data from: Pupil-linked arousal determines variability in perceptual decision making
Decision making between several alternatives is thought to involve the gradual accumulation of evidence in favor of each available choice. This process is profoundly variable even for nominally identical stimuli, yet the neuro-cognitive substrates that determine the magnitude of this variability are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that arousal state is a powerful determinant of variability in perceptual decision making. We measured pupil size, a highly sensitive index of arousal, while human subjects performed a motion-discrimination task, and decomposed task behavior into latent decision making parameters using an established computational model of the decision process. In direct contrast to previous theoretical accounts specifying a role for arousal in several discrete aspects of decision making, we found that pupil diameter was uniquely related to a model parameter representing variability in the rate of decision evidence accumulation: Periods of increased pupil size, reflecting heightened arousal, were characterized by greater variability in accumulation rate. Pupil diameter also correlated trial-by-trial with specific patterns of behavior that collectively are diagnostic of changing accumulation rate variability, and explained substantial individual differences in this computational quantity. These findings provide a uniquely clear account of how arousal state impacts decision making, and may point to a relationship between pupil-linked neuromodulation and behavioral variability. They also pave the way for future studies aimed at augmenting the precision with which people make decisions.
Data from: Social interactions elicit rapid shifts in functional connectivity in the social decision-making network of zebrafish
According to the social decision-making (SDM) network hypothesis, SDM is encoded in a network of forebrain and midbrain structures in a distributed and dynamic fashion, such that the expression of a given social behaviour is better reflected by the overall profile of activation across the different loci rather than by the activity of a single node. This proposal has the implicit assumption that SDM relies on integration across brain regions, rather than on regional specialization. Here we tested the occurrence of functional localization and of functional connectivity in the SDM network. For this purpose we used zebrafish to map different social behaviour states into patterns of neuronal activity, as indicated by the expression of the immediate early genes c-fos and egr-1, across the SDM network. The results did not support functional localization, as some loci had similar patterns of activity associated with different social behaviour states, and showed socially driven changes in functional connectivity. Thus, this study provides functional support to the SDM network hypothesis and suggests that the neural context in which a given node of the network is operating (i.e. the state of its interconnected areas) is central to its functional relevance.
Data from: Adaptive and selective seed abortion reveals complex conditional decision making in plants
Behaviour is traditionally attributed to animals only. Recently, evidence for plant behaviour is accumulating, mostly from plant physiological studies. Here, we provide ecological evidence for complex plant behaviour in the form of seed abortion decisions conditional on internal and external cues. We analysed seed abortion patterns of barberry plants exposed to seed parasitism and different environmental conditions. Without abortion, parasite infestation of seeds can lead to loss of all seeds in a fruit. We statistically tested a series of null-models with Monte-Carlo simulations to establish selectivity and adaptiveness of the observed seed abortion patterns. Seed abortion was more frequent in parasitized fruits and fruits from dry habitats. Surprisingly, seed abortion occurred with significantly greater probability if there was a second intact seed in the fruit. This strategy provides a fitness benefit if abortion can prevent a sibling seed from co-infestation and if non-abortion of an infested, but surviving single seed saves resources invested in the fruit coat. Ecological evidence for complex decision making in plants thus includes a structural memory (the second seed), simple reasoning (integration of inner and outer conditions), conditional behaviour (abortion), and anticipation of future risks (seed predation).
Data from: Patient factors that influence decision-making in self-management support: a clinical vignette study
Background and aim: Self-management support is an integral part of current chronic care guidelines. The success of self-management interventions varies between individual patients, suggesting a need for tailored self-management support. Understanding the role of patient factors in the current decision making of health professionals can support future tailoring of self-management interventions. The aim of this study is to identify the relative importance of patient factors in health professionals' decision making regarding self-management support. Method: A factorial survey was presented to primary care physicians and nurses. The survey consisted of clinical vignettes (case descriptions), in which 11 patient factors were systematically varied. Each care provider received a set of 12 vignettes. For each vignette, they decided whether they would give this patient self-management support and whether they expected this support to be successful. The associations between respondent decisions and patient factors were explored using ordered logit regression. Results: The survey was completed by 60 general practitioners and 80 nurses. Self-management support was unlikely to be provided in a third of the vignettes. The most important patient factor in the decision to provide self-management support as well as in the expectation that self-management support would be successful was motivation, followed by patient-provider relationship and illness perception. Other factors, such as depression or anxiety, education level, self-efficacy and social support, had a small impact on decisions. Disease, disease severity, knowledge of disease, and age were relatively unimportant factors. Conclusion: This is the first study to explore the relative importance of patient factors in decision making and the expectations regarding the provision of self-management support to chronic disease patients. By far, the most important factor considered was patient's motivation; unmotivated patients were less likely to receive self-management support. Future tailored interventions should incorporate strategies to enhance motivation in unmotivated patients. Furthermore, care providers should be better equipped to promote motivational change in their patients.
Data from: Does fertility status influence impulsivity and risk taking in human females? Adaptive influences on intertemporal choice and risky decision making
Informed by the research on adaptive decision making in other animal species, this study investigated human females' intertemporal and risky choices across the ovulatory cycle. We tested the hypothesis that at peak fertility, women who are exposed to environments that signal availability of higher quality mates (by viewing images of attractive males), become more impulsive and risk-seeking in economic decision tasks. To test this, we collected intertemporal and risky choice measures before and after exposure to images of either attractive males or neutral landscapes both at peak and low fertility conditions. The results showed an interaction between women's fertility status and image type, such that women at peak fertility viewing images of attractive men chose the smaller, sooner monetary reward option less than women at peak fertility viewing neutral images. Neither fertility status nor image type influenced risky choice. Thus, though exposure to images of men altered intertemporal choices at peak fertility, this occurred in the opposite direction than predicted—i.e., women at peak fertility became less impulsive. Nevertheless, the results of the current study provide evidence for shifts in preferences over the ovulatory cycle and opens future research on economic decision making.
Data from: Composite collective decision making
Individual animals are adept at making decisions and have cognitive abilities, such as memory, which allow them to hone their decisions. Social animals can also share information. This allows social animals to make adaptive group-level decisions. Both individual and collective decision-making systems also have drawbacks and limitations, and while both are well studied, the interaction between them is still poorly understood. Here, we study how individual and collective decision-making interact during ant foraging. We first gathered empirical data on memory-based foraging persistence in the ant Lasius niger. We used these data to create an agent-based model where ants may use social information (trail pheromones), private information (memories) or both to make foraging decisions. The combined use of social and private information by individuals results in greater efficiency at the group level than when either information source was used alone. The modelled ants couple consensus decision-making, allowing them to quickly exploit high-quality food sources, and combined decision-making, allowing different individuals to specialize in exploiting different resource patches. Such a composite collective decision-making system reaps the benefits of both its constituent parts. Exploiting such insights into composite collective decision-making may lead to improved decision-making algorithms.
Data from: Time perception-based decision making in a parasitoid wasp
The capacity of animals to measure time and adjust their behaviors accordingly has been a topic of interest in vertebrates, but little evidence is currently available for insects. This capacity has yet to be properly investigated in parasitoid wasps, even though they are frequently used to test ecological models. Here, using associative learning between odors and time intervals, we show that the parasitoid wasp Microplitis croceipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) has the capacity to measure time. When released in a wind tunnel, females flew toward an odor associated with the time interval they had just experienced. We also found that reducing energy expenditure by restraining parasitoid wasp movement during the training interval prevented time perception. This serves as experimental evidence of time perception in a parasitoid wasp, provides both a rare example of learning associated to a time interval in an insect and a mechanism by which these animals could optimize their behaviors, as well as suggesting a role for energy expenditure in its time perception mechanism.
Data from: Nonadditive indirect effects of group genetic diversity on larval viability in Drosophila melanogaster imply key role of maternal decision-making
Genetic variation can have important consequences for populations: high population genetic diversity is typically associated with ecological success. Some mechanisms that account for these benefits assume that local social groups with high genetic diversity are more successful than low-diversity groups. At the same time, active decision-making by individuals can influence group genetic diversity, a behavioral process not generally incorporated into discussions of population-level diversity effects. Here, we examine how maternal decisions that determine group genetic diversity influence the viability of Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Our groups contained wildtype larvae, whose genetic diversity we manipulated; and genetically-marked "tester" larvae, whose genotype and frequency were identical in all trials. We measured wildtype and tester viability for each group. Surprisingly, the viability of wildtype larvae did not depend on group genetic diversity. However, the viability of the tester genotype was substantially depressed in large, high-diversity groups. Further, not all high-diversity groups produced this effect: certain combinations of wildtype genotypes were deleterious to tester viability, while other groups of the same diversity—but containing different wildtype genotypes—were not deleterious. These deleterious combinations of wildtype genotypes could not be predicted by observing the performance of the same tester and wildtype genotypes in low-diversity groups. Taken together, these results suggest that non-additive interactions among genotypes, rather than genetic diversity per se, account for between-group differences in viability in D. melanogaster; and that predicting the consequences of genetic diversity at the population level may not be straightforward.
Data from: Clinical decision making in spinal fusion for chronic low back pain. Results of a nationwide survey among spine surgeons
OBJECTIVES: To assess the use of prognostic patient factors and predictive tests in clinical decision making for spinal fusion in patients with chronic low back pain. DESIGN AND SETTING: Nationwide survey among spine surgeons. PARTICIPANTS: Surgeon members of the Dutch Spine Society were questioned on their treatment strategy for chronic low back pain. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The surgeons' opinion on the use of prognostic factors and tests for patient selection were addressed, and the degree of uniformity was assessed. In addition, the influence of surgeon specific factors, such as clinical experience and training, was determined. RESULTS: The comments from 62 surgeons (70% response rate) were analysed. Forty-four surgeons (71%) had extensive clinical experience. There was a statistically significant lack of uniformity of opinion in 7 of the 11 items on prognostic factors and 8 of the 11 items on predictive tests, respectively. Imaging was valued much higher than predictive tests, psychological screening, or patient preferences (all p<0.01). Apart from the use of discography and long multi-segment fusions, differences in training or clinical experience did not appear to be of significant influence on treatment strategy. CONCLUSIONS: The present survey showed a lack of consensus among spine surgeons on the use of predictive tests for patient selection. Prognostic patient factors were not consistently incorporated in their treatment strategy. Clinical decision making for spinal fusion to treat chronic low back pain does not have a uniform evidence base in practice. Future research should focus on identifying subgroups of patients for whom spinal fusion is an effective treatment. Only a reliable prediction of surgical outcome, combined with the implementation of individual patient factors, may enable the instalment of consensus guidelines in surgical decision making for chronic low back pain.
Data from: Interspecific shared collective decision-making in two forensically important species
To date, the study of collective behaviour has mainly focused on intraspecific situations: the collective decision-making of mixed-species groups involving interspecific aggregation-segregation has received little attention. Here, we show that, in both conspecific and heterospecific groups, the larvae of two species (Lucilia sericata and Calliphora vomitoria, calliphorid carrion-feeding flies) were able to make a collective choice. In all groups, the choice was made within a few minutes and persisted throughout the experiment period. The monitoring of a focal individual within a group showed that these aggregations were governed by attractive and retentive effects of the group. Furthermore, the similarity observed between the conspecific and heterospecific groups suggested the existence of shared aggregation signals. The group size was found to have a stronger influence than the species of necrophagous larvae. These results should be viewed in relation to the well-known correlation between group size and heat generation. This study provides the first experimental examination of the dynamics of collective decision-making in mixed-species groups of invertebrates, contributing to our understanding of the cooperation-competition phenomenon in animal social groups.
Data from: Seasonality in communication and collective decision-making in ants
The ability of animals to adjust their behaviour according to seasonal changes in their ecology is crucial for their fitness. Eusocial insects display strong collective behavioural seasonality, yet the mechanisms underlying such changes are poorly understood. We show that nest preference by emigrating Temnothorax albipennis ant colonies is influenced by a season-specific modulatory pheromone that may help tune decision-making according to seasonal constraints. The modulatory pheromone triggers aversion towards low-quality nests and enhances colony cohesion in summer and autumn, but not after overwintering—in agreement with reports that field colonies split in spring and reunite in summer. Interestingly, we show that the pheromone acts by downgrading the perceived value of marked nests by informed and naive individuals. This contrasts with theories of collective intelligence, stating that accurate collective decision-making requires independent evaluation of options by individuals. The violation of independence highlighted here was accordingly shown to increase error rate during emigrations. However, this is counterbalanced by enhanced cohesion and the transmission of valuable information through the colony. Our results support recent claims that optimal decisions are not necessarily those that maximize accuracy. Other criteria—such as cohesion or reward rate—may be more relevant in animal decision-making.
Data from: Aggressive spiders make the wrong decision in a difficult task
Accurate and timely decisions are critical for foraging, predator avoidance, and reproductive success. However, there is often a trade-off between speed and accuracy in decision-making, where individuals that make decisions more quickly make more mistakes. An individual's personality may influence its decision-making style (i.e. whether it errs more in the speed or accuracy of a decision) and this relationship may change depending on contexts. Despite growing research on invertebrate personality, how personality correlates with decision-making style is still largely unknown and little research has assessed these relationships across tasks of varying difficulty. Here we test the relationship between aggressiveness and decision-making style in Portia labiata, a specialized spider-eating jumping spider, in both a simple and a difficult task. We found that aggressive spiders made fewer directional changes before completing the tasks, regardless of task difficulty. However, decision accuracy was jointly determined by both aggressiveness and task difficulty. Aggressive spiders made more accurate decisions in the simple task, while docile spiders made more accurate decisions in the difficult task. We conclude that the relationship between personality and decision-making style in P. labiata is context dependent. We also discuss how the association between aggressiveness and decision-making style may serve important functions in maintaining behavioral variation in a natural population.
Data from: Incorporating ecological functions in conservation decision making
Systematic conservation planning has become a standard approach globally, but prioritization of conservation efforts hardly considers species traits in decision-making. This can be important for species persistence and thus adequacy of the conservation plan. Here, we developed and validated a novel approach of incorporating trophic information into a systematic conservation planning framework. We demonstrate the benefits of this approach by using fish data from Europe´s second largest river, the Danube. Our results show that adding trophic information leads to a different spatial configuration of priority areas at no additional cost. This can enhance identification of priority refugia for species in the lower position of the trophic web while simultaneously identifying areas that represent a more diverse species pool. Our methodological approach to incorporating species traits into systematic conservation planning is generally applicable, irrespective of realm, geographical area and species composition and can potentially lead to more adequate conservation plans.
Data from: Zeno's paradox in decision making
Classical probability theory has been influential in modeling decision processes, despite empirical findings that have been persistently paradoxical from classical perspectives. For such findings, some researchers have been successfully pursuing decision models based on quantum theory. One unique feature of quantum theory is the collapse postulate, which entails that measurements (or in decision making, judgments) reset the state to be consistent with the measured outcome. If there is quantum structure in cognition, then there has to be evidence for the collapse postulate. A striking, a priori prediction, is that opinion change will be slowed down (under idealized conditions frozen) by continuous judgments. In physics, this is the quantum Zeno effect. We demonstrate a quantum Zeno effect in decision making in humans and so provide evidence that advocates the use of quantum principles in decision theory, at least in some cases.
Data from: Social setting, intuition and experience in laboratory experiments interact to shape cooperative decision-making
Recent studies suggest that cooperative decision-making in one-shot interactions is a history-dependent dynamic process: promoting intuition versus deliberation typically has a positive effect on cooperation (dynamism) among people living in a cooperative setting and with no previous experience in economic games on cooperation (history dependence). Here, we report on a laboratory experiment exploring how these findings transfer to a non-cooperative setting. We find two major results: (i) promoting intuition versus deliberation has no effect on cooperative behaviour among inexperienced subjects living in a non-cooperative setting; (ii) experienced subjects cooperate more than inexperienced subjects, but only under time pressure. These results suggest that cooperation is a learning process, rather than an instinctive impulse or a self-controlled choice, and that experience operates primarily via the channel of intuition. Our findings shed further light on the cognitive basis of human cooperative decision-making and provide further support for the recently proposed social heuristics hypothesis.
Data from: Collective decision-making in homing pigeons: Larger flocks take longer to decide but do not make better decisions
Social animals routinely are challenged to make consensus decisions about movement directions and routes. However, the underlying mechanisms facilitating such decision-making processes are still poorly known. A prominent question is how group members participate in group decisions. We addressed this question by examining how flocks of homing pigeons (Columba livia) decide their homing direction. We released newly formed flocks varying in size and determined the time taken to choose a homing direction (decision-making period) and the accuracy of that choice. We found that the decision-making period increases exponentially with flock size, which is consistent with a participatory decision-making process. We additionally found that there is no effect of flock size on the accuracy of the decisions made, which does not match with current theory for democratic choices of flight directions. Our combined results are better explained by a participatory choice of leaders that subsequently undertake the flock directional decisions. However, this decision-making model would only entirely fit with our results if leaders were chosen based on traits other than their navigational experience. Our study provides rare empirical evidence elucidating decision-making processes in freely moving groups of animals.
Modernising Optimisation in Decision Making
<p>Optimisation in decision making has broad applicability to the whole spectrum of nuclear and radiation-related policy, regulation and practice. The way it is applied has changed in recent years as society has evolved to promote an inclusive and holistic decision-making process. In the radiological protection area, the increasing challenge is to apply it in the broader context of overall risk management, broaden the stakeholder participation process, and deepen the thinking on reasonableness in optimisation. Experience in various circumstances has shown that there is a need to develop a framework in which very different aspects can be balanced to support risk-based decision-making and determine the level of tolerance of risk and uncertainty. Currently, optimisation, as one of the three protection principles of the international radiological protection system, is well defined in theory, complex in practice in a large number of situations, and increasingly based on the combination of four pillars:</p> <ul> <li>holistic, or integrated, protection where optimisation of radiological protection is applied as part of an overall optimisation of protection from all relevant hazards (sometimes referred to as an ‘all hazards approach’);</li> <li>maximising net benefit and the ‘common good’ - taking all relevant socio-economic and environmental risks and impacts, and benefits, into account so that radiological protection facilitates and enhances well-being and does not result in unintended consequences;</li> <li>involving stakeholders – with stakeholder engagement being integral to the decision-making process and key for defining acceptance or tolerance;</li> <li>the need for proportionality – by implementing a graded approach.</li> </ul> <p>As radiological protection moves towards a more holistic approach, recognising its multi-dimensional nature, there should be an even greater focus on understanding and meeting the expectations of those affected by the application of protection. Development is therefore needed along three main lines:</p> <p>(i) how policy and practice are developed in consultation with, and understood by a wider cross section of society;</p> <p>(ii) how policy and practice could be simplified;</p> <p>(iii) how to integrate consideration of other policies and practices so that radiological protection is properly integrated into the wider decision-making process and not seen as a separate "add-on" process.</p> <p>The forthcoming work of the Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health on modernising the way optimisation is implemented should help inform the revision of the ICRP system. The ultimate goal is to facilitate sustainable and transparent decision-making, beyond the optimisation of radiological protection, in the broader perspective of individual and social well-being.</p> <p>Text on behalf the NEA CRPPH's bureau.</p>
Research data supporting: Decreasing alertness modulates perceptual decision-making
<p>The zip file contains research data supporting the paper: Decreasing alertness modulates perceptual decision-making<br> The files are arranged in the following manner:</p> <ol> <li>The raw data is present for 32 subjects used in the analysis.<br> Each subject has a directory, for e.g. s_02 <br> a) Inside this directory, there are two directories:<br> awake: s_02_awake<br> drowsy: s_02_drowsy<br> b) The awake file has 124 trials, and the drowsy has 740 trials<br> c) The files are .mff format (egi) and the coding is as follows:<br> 'tone' - stimulus, 'RESP' - response. <br> Each 'tone' is followed by a 'DIN2' marker, that marks when the stimulus was actually presented.</li> <li> 'summary_Righthanders.csv' contains the other details for all subjects, with subject id and whether the data was<br> actually used for the analysis or not.</li> </ol>
Improving the Process of Shared Decision-Making by Integrating Online Structured Information and Self-Assessment Tools
<p>Data of the SDM cases.</p>
Replication package for: We are all behavioral, more or less: A taxonomy of consumer decision making
<p>Code and data for reproducing tables in the paper.</p>
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These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.