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

你有没有开始拿一盘诱人的饼干，但一秒钟后当你记起它们富含脂肪和糖时，你就停了下来？或者在工作时挣扎着抵抗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过得更好的决定。不幸的是，人们经常与诱惑作斗争，选择以后会后悔的方式。尽管进行了几十年的研究，但我们并不完全明白其中的原因。是什么让自我控制有时感觉如此困难？当我们屈服于诱惑时，哪里出了问题？最重要的是，我们如何发展更好的自我控制？*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。这项工作突出了一件事，尽管它很重要，但经常被低估：自我控制不是“发生”的。这是一个随着时间的推移而展开和变化的过程，有时非常快，有时慢得令人痛苦。因此，为了理解和改进决策，我们不仅必须考虑到某人最终做出的选择，还必须考虑到在此过程中发生的丰富的情感和认知动态。*拟议的研究计划通过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，以了解关于选择价值的信息是如何以及何时在大脑中呈现的。其次，它使用连续行为测量、神经成像和计算建模的新组合来测试重要的预测，即信息的时机和自我控制的部署如何相互作用来塑造选择。这种方法将有助于澄清自我控制的部署何时有效，为什么有效，以及何时可能失败。*在追求长期目标的过程中抵制诱惑的能力与对自我和社会都有许多重要好处有关，而这种能力的缺失被认为会导致破坏性的关系、成瘾和肥胖问题以及工作场所的生产力。了解选择背后的基本机制可能有助于我们更好地理解适应性和非适应性选择，以及开发更有效的干预措施来改善结果。这项研究计划通过开发和提炼新的选择行为模式，并为自我控制何时失败以及为什么失败提供新的见解，为实现这一目标做出了贡献。公众以及商业领袖、政策制定者和教育工作者将对此感兴趣，希望帮助人们做出更好、更具适应性的选择。**

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.**