Evolution and the Mechanisms of Decision Making

Evolution and the Mechanisms of Decision Making
Author: Peter Hammerstein
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262551500

Download Evolution and the Mechanisms of Decision Making Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A multidisciplinary examination of cognitive mechanisms, shaped over evolutionary time through natural selection, that govern decision making. How do we make decisions? Conventional decision theory tells us only which behavioral choices we ought to make if we follow certain axioms. In real life, however, our choices are governed by cognitive mechanisms shaped over evolutionary time through the process of natural selection. Evolution has created strong biases in how and when we process information, and it is these evolved cognitive building blocks—from signal detection and memory to individual and social learning—that provide the foundation for our choices. An evolutionary perspective thus sheds necessary light on the nature of how we and other animals make decisions. This volume—with contributors from a broad range of disciplines, including evolutionary biology, psychology, economics, anthropology, neuroscience, and computer science—offers a multidisciplinary examination of what evolution can tell us about our and other animals' mechanisms of decision making. Human children, for example, differ from chimpanzees in their tendency to over-imitate others and copy obviously useless actions; this divergence from our primate relatives sets up imitation as one of the important mechanisms underlying human decision making. The volume also considers why and when decision mechanisms are robust, why they vary across individuals and situations, and how social life affects our decisions.

Efficient Cognition

Efficient Cognition
Author: Armin W. Schulz
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2018-02-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262037602

Download Efficient Cognition Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An argument that representational decision making is more cognitively efficient, allowing an organism to adjust more easily to changes in the environment. Many organisms (including humans) make decisions by relying on mental representations. Not simply a reaction triggered by perception, representational decision making employs high-level, non-perceptual mental states with content to manage interactions with the environment. A person making a decision based on mental representations, for example, takes a step back from her perceptions at the time to assess the nature of the world she lives in. But why would organisms rely on representational decision making, and what evolutionary benefits does this reliance provide to the decision maker? In Efficient Cognition, Armin Schulz argues that representational decision making can be more cognitively efficient than non-representational decision making. Specifically, he shows that a key driver in the evolution of representational decision making is that mental representations can enable an organism to save cognitive resources and adjust more efficiently to changed environments. After laying out the foundations of his argument—clarifying the central questions, the characterization of representational decision making, and the relevance of an evidential form of evolutionary psychology—Schulz presents his account of the evolution of representational decision making and critically considers some of the existing accounts of the subject. He then applies his account to three open questions concerning the nature of representational decision making: the extendedness of decision making, and when we should expect cognition to extend into the environment; the specialization of decision making and the use of simple heuristics; and the psychological sources of altruistic behaviors.

The Evolution of Decision Making

The Evolution of Decision Making
Author: J. Austin
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2015-11-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781517119911

Download The Evolution of Decision Making Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Decision making can be difficult. A poor decision can lead to a life filled with self-doubt, low self-esteem, or disruption from discovering our intended purpose. Our thoughts fuel our emotion. So much about our behavior is dependent upon the way we think. And what we think (self-talk) influences how we feel. For the adolescent (or the less-mature thinker) behavior is too often motivated by emotion.

Development of an Anticipating Decision Making System Using Evolution and Learning

Development of an Anticipating Decision Making System Using Evolution and Learning
Author:
Publisher: Cuvillier Verlag
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2006-01-15
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 373691749X

Download Development of an Anticipating Decision Making System Using Evolution and Learning Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The target of this thesis was to develop an anticipating and learning deci- human decision sion making system for competitive decision problems. Humans are so- making as model phisticated decision makers – they are not purely stimulus-driven, but internally simulate possible strategies and consequences before their execution. To allow the integration of environmental changes into this simulation (e.g. represented by a dynamic opponent in a competitive interaction), an imitator model is built. This allows to adapt the different available decision strategies, which humans have in mind, to a dynamically changing environment. After an evaluation according to personal preferences the resulting decision is made. These decision making concepts allow humans to make very exible and robust decisions. Neurobiological ndings cannot provide detailed guidelines for the development of a system. Nevertheless hypotheses regarding the general architectural approach can be translated into arti cial systems.

Cognitive Ecology

Cognitive Ecology
Author: Reuven Dukas
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 1998-07-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0226169332

Download Cognitive Ecology Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Cognitive Ecology lays the foundations for a field of study that integrates theory and data from evolutionary ecology and cognitive science to investigate how animal interactions with natural habitats shape cognitive systems, and how constraints imposed on nervous systems limit or bias animal behavior. Using critical literature reviews and theoretical models, the contributors provide new insights and raise novel questions about the adaptive design of specific brain capacities and about optimal behavior subject to the computational capabilities of brains.

Comparative Decision Making

Comparative Decision Making
Author: Philip H. Crowley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 523
Release: 2013-01-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199856818

Download Comparative Decision Making Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Decision making cuts across most areas of intellectual enquiry and academic endeavor. The classical view of individual human thinkers choosing among options remains important and instructive, but the contributors to this volume broaden this perspective to characterize the decision making behavior of groups, non-human organisms and even non-living objects and mathematical constructs. A diverse array of methods is brought to bear-mathematical, computational, subjective, neurobiological, evolutionary, and cultural. We can often identify best or optimal decisions and decision making processes, but observed responses may deviate markedly from these, to a large extent because the environment in which decisions must be made is constantly changing. Moreover, decision making can be highly constrained by institutions, natural and social context, and capabilities. Studies of the mechanisms underlying decisions by humans and other organisms are just beginning to gain traction and shape our thinking. Though decision making has fundamental similarities across the diverse array of entities considered to be making them, there are large differences of degree (if not kind) that relate to the question of human uniqueness. From this survey of views and approaches, we converge on a tentative agenda for accelerating development of a new field that includes advancing the dialog between the sciences and the humanities, developing a defensible classification scheme for decision making and decision makers, addressing the role of morality and justice, and moving advances into applications-the rapidly developing field of decision support.

Neurobiology of Decision-Making

Neurobiology of Decision-Making
Author: Antonio R. Damasio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3642799280

Download Neurobiology of Decision-Making Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Neuroscience has paid only little attention to decision-making for many years. Although no field of science has cohered around this topic, a variety of researchers in different areas of neuroscience ranging from cellular physiology to neuropsychology and computational neuroscience have been engaged in working on this issue. Thus, the time seemed to be ripe to bring these researchers together and discuss the state of the art of the neurobiology of decision-making in a broad forum. This book is a collection of contributions presented at that forum in Paris in October 1994 organized by the Fondation IPSEN.

Decision Science for Future Earth

Decision Science for Future Earth
Author: Tetsukazu Yahara
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2021-01-29
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9811586322

Download Decision Science for Future Earth Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This open access book provides a theoretical framework and case studies on decision science for regional sustainability by integrating the natural and social sciences. The cases discussed include solution-oriented transdisciplinary studies on the environment, disasters, health, governance and human cooperation. Based on these case studies and comprehensive reviews of relevant works, including lessons learned from past failures for predictable surprises and successes in adaptive co-management, the book provides the reader with new perspectives on how we can co-design collaborative projects with various conflicts of interest and how we can transform our society for a sustainable future. The book makes a valuable contribution to the global research initiative Future Earth, promoting transdisciplinary studies to bridge the gap between science and society in knowledge generation processes and supporting efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Compared to other publications on transdisciplinary studies, this book is unique in that evolutionary biology is used as an integrator for various areas related to human decision-making, and approaches social changes as processes of adaptive learning and evolution. Given its scope, the book is highly recommended to all readers seeking an integrated overview of human decision-making in the context of social transformation.

Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior

Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior
Author: Panel on Modeling Human Behavior and Command Decision Making: Representations for Military Simulations
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 1998-08-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0309523893

Download Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior.

Mate Choice

Mate Choice
Author: Gil G. Rosenthal
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 646
Release: 2017-07-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691150672

Download Mate Choice Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A major new look at the evolution of mating decisions in organisms from protozoans to humans The popular consensus on mate choice has long been that females select mates likely to pass good genes to offspring. In Mate Choice, Gil Rosenthal overturns much of this conventional wisdom. Providing the first synthesis of the topic in more than three decades, and drawing from a wide range of fields, including animal behavior, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and economics, Rosenthal argues that "good genes" play a relatively minor role in shaping mate choice decisions and demonstrates how mate choice is influenced by genetic factors, environmental effects, and social interactions. Looking at diverse organisms, from protozoans to humans, Rosenthal explores how factors beyond the hunt for good genes combine to produce an endless array of preferences among species and individuals. He explains how mating decisions originate from structural constraints on perception and from nonsexual functions, and how single organisms benefit or lose from their choices. Both the origin of species and their fusion through hybridization are strongly influenced by direct selection on preferences in sexual and nonsexual contexts. Rosenthal broadens the traditional scope of mate choice research to encompass not just animal behavior and behavioral ecology but also neurobiology, the social sciences, and other areas. Focusing on mate choice mechanisms, rather than the traits they target, Mate Choice offers a groundbreaking perspective on the proximate and ultimate forces determining the evolutionary fate of species and populations.