When deciding between two alternatives, such as whether to order the pasta or the chicken, or whether to pursue a career in academia or industry, a person may feel torn—as if the options literally pull him or her in two directions. This metaphor may have some surprising literal truth. If asked, for example, whether ‘‘murder is sometimes justified,’’ individuals may be inclined to both agree and...

Sleep deprivation has a complex set of neurological effects that go beyond a mere slowing of mental processes. While cognitive and perceptual impairments in sleep deprived individuals are widespread, some abilities remain intact. In an effort to characterize these effects, some have suggested an impairment of complex decision making ability despite intact ability to follow simple rules. To exam...

In model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), signals derived from a computational model for a specific cognitive process are correlated against fMRI data from subjects performing a relevant task to determine brain regions showing a response profile consistent with that model. A key advantage of this technique over more conventional neuroimaging approaches is that model-based fMR...

Two studies examined the use of Think Aloud (TA) protocol as a means for collecting data of cognitive processes during performance in golf. In Study 1, TA was employed to examine if different verbalisation (Level 2 or Level 3 TA) instructions influence performance of high and low skilled golfers. Participants performed 30 putts using TA at either Levels 2, 3, or no verbalization condition. Alth...

Previous researches have demonstrated the role of experience in improvement of the quality of decision making and its components. The aim of present investigation is assessing the role of experience in visual search strategies and action anticipation as two phases of cognitive process involve in decision making in female field hockey players. For the purpose of this study fifty female field hoc...

e-Cognocracy[MP03, MP05, Ker03] is a new democratic system that focuses on the creation and social diffusion of the knowledge related with the scientific resolution of high complexity problems associated with public decision making. Using multicriteria decision making techniques as the methodological aid, the democratic system as a catalyst for the learning that guides the cognitive process dis...

Connecting neural mechanisms of behavior to their underlying molecular and genetic substrates has important scientific and clinical implications. However, despite rapid growth in our knowledge of the functions and computational properties of neural circuitry underlying behavior in a number of important domains, there has been much less progress in extending this understanding to their molecular...

Traditional theories of decision-making assume that utilities are based on the intrinsic value of outcomes; in turn, these values depend on associations between expected outcomes and the current motivational state of the decision-maker. This view disregards the fact that humans (and possibly other animals) have prospection abilities, which permit anticipating future mental processes and motivat...

Cognitive models of decision making aim to explain the process underlying observed choices. Here, we test a sequential sampling model of decision making, multialternative decision field theory (MDFT; Roe, Busemeyer, & Townsend, 2001), on empirical grounds and compare it against 2 established random utility models of choice: the probit and the logit model. Using a within-subject experimental des...

The purpose of this study is to study the reader's cognitive process in reading medical articles and its influence on the decision-making process. Twenty-four participants completed a survey pertaining to 36 medical articles on new treatments with similar text structures and similar titles. Participants rated each article on its level of interest, informativeness, and reliability, and were aske...