Efficient sampling and noisy decisions

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.54962
• Publication Date: 2020-09-15T13:00:39Z
• Authors: Joseph A Heng; Michael Woodford; Rafael Polania
• Keywords: Numerosity adaptation effect

Human decisions are based on finite information, which makes them inherently imprecise. But what determines the degree of such imprecision? Here, we develop an efficient coding framework for higher-level cognitive processes in information is represented by a number discrete samples. We characterize sampling process that maximizes perceptual accuracy or fitness under often-adopted assumption full adaptation to environmental distribution possible, and show how optimal differs when detailed about current contextual costly. tested this theory numerosity discrimination task, found humans efficiently adapt distributions, but way predicted model people must economize information. Thus, understanding decision behavior requires account biological restrictions coding, challenging precise prior knowledge systems.