Thomas Dolman nominated for best MSc thesis prize
Anna Jenkins starting at UPenn as assistant professor in Fall
She will be starting as assistant professor of psychology this coming fall.
Congratulations Anna!
SfN 2017 - Zhihao Zhang presentation
Lab dinner for Pierre & Clara
New paper on neural basis of updating under ambiguity
Title: Neural mechanisms of updating under reducible and irreducible uncertainty
Authors: Kenji Kobayashi and Ming Hsu
Abstract
Adaptive decision-making depends on agents’ ability to make use of environmental signals to reduce uncertainty. However, because there exist multiple types of uncertainty, agents should take into account not only the extent to which signals violate prior expectancy but also whether uncertainty can be reduced in the first place. Here we studied how the brain responds to signals under conditions of reducible and irreducible uncertainty. We show behaviorally that subjects’ value updating was sensitivity to the reducibility of uncertainty, and could be quantitative characterized by a Bayesian model where agents ignore expectancy violations that do not update beliefs or values. Using fMRI, we found that neural processes underlying belief and value updating were separable from responses to expectancy violation, and that reducibility of uncertainty in value modulated connection from belief- to value-updating regions. Together, these results provide insights into how agents use the knowledge on uncertainty to improve decisions while ignoring mere expectancy violation.
Lab Dinner for Daniel, Rachel, and Thomas
New paper on Neuromarketing in California Management Review
Neuromarketing: Inside the mind of the consumer
Abstract
Managers today are under tremendous pressure to uncover factors driving customers’ attitudes and behavior. Unfortunately, traditional methods suffer from well-known limitations, and have remained largely unchanged since their introduction decades ago. As a result, there is growing interest in brain-based approaches that may enable managers to directly probe customers’ underlying thoughts, feelings, and intentions. This article aims to provide practical guidance to managers on using these tools, focusing on two distinct uses: validation of existing insights and generation of novel insights. Throughout, we stress that managers should see traditional and brain-based approaches as complements, rather than substitutes, in understanding customers.
Pierre Karashchuk receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Welcome to Gil Sharvit
New paper on Dissociable contributions of imagination and willpower to the malleability of human patience
Dissociable contributions of imagination and willpower to the malleability of human patience
ABSTRACT
The ability to exercise patience is important for human functioning. Although it is widely known that patience can be promoted by using willpower to override impatient impulses, patience is also malleable—in particular, susceptible to framing effects—in ways that are difficult to explain on a willpower account alone. So far, the mechanisms underlying framing effects on patience have been elusive. Here we investigated a role for imagination, dissociable from willpower, in these effects. Behaviorally, a classic framing manipulation increased self-reported and independently-coded imagination during intertemporal choice (Experiment 1). Neurally, reframing increased the extent to which patience was associated with activation in brain regions associated with imagination, relative to those associated with willpower, and increased functional connectivity of brain regions associated with imagination, but not willpower, to regions associated with valuation (Experiment 2). Results suggest that reframing can increase the role of imagination in decision-making without increasing willpower exertion.