Testing the implications of a dynamic, neurally-informed computational model of valuation, decision making, and self-control

你是否曾经伸手去拿一盘诱人的饼干，但当你想起它们富含脂肪和糖时，你却在一瞬间停下来了？或者在工作时挣扎着抵制电视和互联网的诱惑？有效的自我控制使我们能够抵制这些直接的诱惑，并做出我们知道最终会让我们更好的决定。不幸的是，人们经常与诱惑作斗争，选择了他们后来后悔的方式。尽管经过了几十年的研究，我们仍然不能完全理解其中的原因。是什么让自我控制有时如此困难？当我们屈服于诱惑时，哪里出了问题？最重要的是，我们如何培养更好的自制力？***通过研究决策的计算和神经基础，我的研究为这些长期存在的问题提供了新的答案。这项研究强调了一些尽管非常重要却经常被低估的东西：自我控制并不是“自然而然”发生的。这是一个随着时间展开和变化的过程，有时相当快，有时非常缓慢。因此，为了理解和改进决策，我们不仅要考虑人们最终做出的选择，还要考虑在这个过程中产生的丰富的情感和认知动态。***拟议的研究计划以两种具体方式做到这一点。首先，它借鉴了心理学、神经科学和经济学的见解，以了解有关选择价值的信息是如何以及何时在大脑中表现出来的。其次，它使用了连续行为测量、神经成像和计算建模的新组合来测试关于信息的时间和自我控制的部署如何相互作用以形成选择的重要预测。这种方法将有助于弄清自我控制何时以及为什么会有效，以及何时可能会失败。***在追求长期目标的过程中，抵抗诱惑的能力对个人和社会都有很多重要的好处，而这种能力的缺失被认为会导致破坏性的人际关系、成瘾和肥胖问题，以及工作效率低下。了解选择的基本机制可以帮助我们更好地理解适应和不适应的选择，以及制定更有效的干预措施来改善结果。这一研究项目有助于实现这一目标，通过发展和完善新的选择行为模型，并提供关于自我控制何时以及为何失败的新见解。公众、商业领袖、政策制定者和教育工作者都希望帮助人们做出更好、更有适应性的选择

Have you ever started reaching for a tempting plate of cookies, only to stop a fraction of a second later when you remember that they're full of fat and sugar? Or struggled to resist the lure of TV and the Internet while working? Effective self-control allows us to resist these kinds of immediate temptations and make decisions we know will leave us better off in the end. Unfortunately, people often struggle with temptation and choose in ways they later regret. Despite decades of research, we don't fully understand why. What makes self-control feel so hard sometimes? What goes wrong when we succumb to temptation? Most importantly, how can we develop better self-control?***By investigating the computational and neural bases of decision making, my research has provided new answers to these long-standing questions. This work highlights something that often goes under-appreciated despite its deep importance: self-control doesn't just “happen.” It is a process that unfolds and changes over time, sometimes quite quickly, sometimes agonizingly slowly. Thus, to understand and improve decision making, we must account not just for the choice someone makes in the end, but also for the rich affective and cognitive dynamics that occur along the way. ***The proposed program of research does this in two specific ways. First, it draws on insights from psychology, neuroscience, and economics to understand how and when information about the value of a choice is represented across the brain. Second, it uses a novel combination of continuous behavioral measures, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to test important predictions about how the timing of information and the deployment of self-control interact to shape choices. This approach will help to clarify when and why the deployment of self-control will be effect, and when it is likely to fail.***The ability to resist temptation in the pursuit of long-term goals has been linked to a host of important benefits for both the self and society, while deficits in this ability are thought to contribute to destructive relationships, problems with addiction and obesity, and workplace productivity. Understanding the basic mechanisms underlying choice may help us to better understand both adaptive and maladaptive choices, as well as to develop more effective interventions to improve outcomes. This program of research contributes toward that goal, by developing and refining new models of choice behaviour, and providing new insights into when and why self-control fails. It will be of interest to the general public, as well as to business leaders, policy makers, and educators hoping to help people make better, more adaptive choices.**