The influence of memory on value-based decision-making

记忆对基于价值的决策的影响

• 批准号: 2271944
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2271944
• 关键词: influence; memory; value; based; decision

Although it may not always be apparent, memory plays a crucial role in the ability to navigateeveryday life. Memory allows us to type on our keyboard without having to look at the keys andremember to take our prescription medication without the use of external aids. Moreover, memoryenables us to reflect upon previously made, sometimes faulty, decisions, and their outcomes,allowing for adaptive decision-making of future choices in an otherwise uncertain environment(e.g., improving investment strategies based on previously, perhaps poorly, made investments).Traditionally, potential outcomes associated with available options are known in value-baseddecision-making research - also known as decisions from description - but recent research hasillustrated drawbacks of these description-based prospects as they do not generalize to many realworldexperiences. Often probability distributions are not known and thus cannot be relied uponwhen making choices. Rather, one must use memories of previous experiences formed fromoutcomes of past choices to effectively guide and improve future choices. We aim to investigate therelationship between memory and decision making when evidence for available options isaccumulated over time.Extending this approach further, our choices do not always result in the outcomes we expect, and insuch cases, negative outcomes may promote thought of 'what could have been' (e.g., 'if only I hadinvested in a different company, I would have made a profit'). Such counterfactual thinking hasbeen shown to affect future choices as to avoid those situations from occurring again in the futureand not having to experience the negative affect associated with the outcomes. Counterfactualinformation is effectively a learning experience where we rely on our memory in an attempt toavoid the same or similar outcome in the future. The project will additionally assess howcounterfactual information (e.g., experienced regret) may influence or mediate episodic memoryand inform subsequent choices as evidence accumulates over time. We will draw from previousstudies from the fields of memory, economics, psychophysics, and decision-making. In addition tobehavioral experiments, neuroimaging techniques-such as electroencephalography-will be usedin an attempt to gain insight into how the brain accumulates evidence and integrates it into memoryfor future decision-making.The contributions from the project are two-fold, with intellectual and potential societal implications.The findings will expand upon the current understanding of economic decision-making by addingrelevant novel knowledge as to the role memory plays in value-based decision-making. The projectwill deepen current understanding by elaborating how pieces of accumulated evidence areintegrated into memory and how it influences future value-based choices of the same nature.Understanding the relationship between memory and decision-making processes can lead tointerventions which minimize harmful consequences as a function of changes in memoryperformance on choices (e.g., increased susceptibility to scams and advertising) in olderpopulations.

尽管可能并不总是很明显，但记忆在驾驭日常生活的能力中起着至关重要的作用。记忆让我们不用看键盘就能在键盘上打字，也让我们不用借助外部辅助工具就能记住服用处方药。此外，记忆使我们能够反思以前做出的（有时是错误的）决定及其结果，从而允许我们在不确定的环境中对未来的选择做出适应性决策。（基于以前（或许是糟糕的）投资改进投资策略）。传统上，在基于价值的决策研究中，与可用选项相关的潜在结果是已知的——也称为基于描述的决策——但最近的研究表明，这些基于描述的前景的缺点是，它们不能推广到许多现实世界的经验。通常，概率分布是未知的，因此在做出选择时不能依赖于它。相反，一个人必须使用由过去选择的结果形成的以前经验的记忆来有效地指导和改进未来的选择。我们的目标是研究记忆和决策之间的关系，当可用选项的证据随着时间的推移而积累。进一步扩展这种方法，我们的选择并不总是导致我们期望的结果，在这种情况下，消极的结果可能会促使人们思考“本来可以是什么”（例如，“如果我投资了另一家公司，我就会盈利”）。这种反事实的想法已经被证明会影响未来的选择，以避免这些情况在未来再次发生，并且不必经历与结果相关的负面影响。反事实信息实际上是一种学习经验，我们依靠我们的记忆来试图避免未来出现相同或类似的结果。该项目还将评估反事实信息（例如，经历过的遗憾）如何影响或调解情景记忆，并随着时间的推移，随着证据的积累，为随后的选择提供信息。我们将从记忆、经济学、心理物理学和决策学领域的先前研究中汲取经验。除了行为实验，神经成像技术——如脑电图——将被用于试图深入了解大脑是如何积累证据并将其整合到记忆中以供未来决策的。该项目的贡献是双重的，具有智力和潜在的社会意义。研究结果将通过增加记忆在基于价值的决策中所起作用的相关新知识，扩展目前对经济决策的理解。该项目将通过阐述如何将积累的证据整合到记忆中，以及它如何影响未来同样性质的基于价值的选择，加深当前的理解。了解记忆和决策过程之间的关系可以帮助我们采取干预措施，最大限度地减少老年人在选择过程中记忆表现变化带来的有害后果（例如，对欺诈和广告的敏感性增加）。