Toward using comprehensive decision-making models in neuropsychological testing

描述(申请人提供)：在日常生活中，快速的一项、两项和多项选择的决策是很常见的。必须根据任何数量的信息来源，经常面对快速变化的情况，迅速作出决定。这项拟议研究的最高目标是将一套认知心理学理论转化为实际问题。该计划是利用这些理论来开发工具，用来衡量做出快速决策所用的基本、基本过程。目前，现代认知理论对神经心理测试的影响很小。这项拟议的研究的目标是通过提供一个连贯的、基于理论的、关于快速单项、双项和多项选择决策的描述来开始改变这一点。将使用的认知心理学模型旨在解释感知和记忆研究领域中简单决定的准确性和速度，并将其与认知和驾驶、认知与衰老等实用领域联系起来。例如，在驾驶中，在另一辆车的刹车灯开始时决定减速是一项选择决定；决定一块灯比背景更暗还是更亮是一项二选决定；对之前是否学习过一个单词或图片的置信度是一项多项选择决定。我们将使用的三个模型，一个用于一个选择决策，一个用于两个选择决策，一个用于多个选择决策，使用扩散过程并共享基本属性。它们都将处理分为类似的组件：决策所基于的信息的质量、确定为了决策必须有多少信息可用的标准、使所需信息可用的编码和存储器访问过程、以及使决策公开的响应执行过程。作为我们目标的核心，这些模型允许逐个时刻地检查在提出刺激和对刺激做出反应之间发生的特定过程。这项研究将调查大学年龄的成年人和老年人(60-74岁)的这些过程。计划中的方法是开发和测试各种领域的单项和多项选择决策的新模型。这个单一选择模型将在模拟驾驶和感知任务的实验中进行测试，这些任务已经被用来评估睡眠剥夺对认知的影响。多项选择模型将在记忆和知觉判断领域进行测试。在这两种情况下，计划中的实验都将允许将这两种模型与目前得到充分验证的二选一模型进行比较。这项拟议研究的最终目标是开发神经心理学测试，可用于评估脑震荡、衰老和化疗等对认知的影响。这项研究将是创新的，因为单项、两项和多项选择模型以前从未被用于认知障碍的诊断或康复跟踪。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In everyday life, fast one-, two-, and multi-choice decisions are common. Rapid decisions must be made based on any number of sources of information, often in the face of quickly changing conditions. The paramount aim of the proposed research is to move a set of Cognitive Psychology theories to practical issues. The plan is to use the theories to develop tools with which to measure the basic, elemental processes by which rapid decisions are made. Currently, modern cognitive theories have had little impact on neuropsychological testing. The goal of the proposed research is to begin to change this by providing a coherent, theory-based account of rapid one-, two-, and multi-choice decisions. The Cognitive Psychology models to be used are designed to explain the accuracy and speed of simple decisions in the research domains of perception and memory and to bridge to the practical domains of cognition and driving, and cognition and aging. For example, in driving, deciding to slow at the onset of another car's brake lights is a one-choice decision; deciding whether a patch of light is darker or brighter than the background is a two-choice decision; rating the confidence in whether a word or picture was studied earlier is a multi-choice decision. The three models we will use, one for one-choice decisions, one for two-choice decisions, and one for multi-choice decisions, use diffusion processes and share foundational properties. Each divides processing into similar components: the quality of the information upon which a decision is based, the criteria that determine how much information must be available in order to make a decision, the encoding and memory-access processes that make the needed information available, and the response execution processes that make a decision overt. Central to our aims, the models allow examination of the particular, moment-by-moment, processes that take place between the presentation of a stimulus and the response to it. The research will investigate these processes for college-age adults and elderly adults (ages 60-74). The planned approach is to develop and test new models for one- and multi-choice decisions in a variety of domains. The one-choice model will be tested in experiments that involve simulated driving and perceptual tasks that have been used to assess the effects of sleep deprivation on cognition. The multi-choice model will be tested in the domains of memory and perceptual judgments. In both cases, planned experiments will allow comparisons of the two models to a currently well-validated two-choice model. The eventual goal of the proposed research is the development of neuropsychological tests that can be used to assess the impacts on cognition of, for example, concussion, aging, and chemotherapy. The research will be innovative in that the one-, two- and multi-choice models have not previously been used in the diagnosis of cognitive impairments or in the tracking of recovery from them.