Significance The physiological response evoked by short-lived stressful events, referred to as acute stress, impacts human decision-making. Past studies assume that stress causes people fall back, from more cognitive or deliberative modes of choice, primitive automatic choice because impairs peoples’ capacity process information (working memory). We directly examined how affects in a laboratory decision-making task for which the working memory demands two forms are well understood, finding...

A number of accounts human and animal behavior posit the operation parallel competing valuation systems in control choice behavior. In these accounts, a flexible but computationally expensive model-based reinforcement-learning system has been contrasted with less more efficient model-free system. The factors governing which controls behavior—and under what circumstances—are still unclear. Following hypothesis that reinforcement learning requires cognitive resources, we demonstrated having...

Studies in humans and rodents have suggested that behavior can at times be "goal-directed"-that is, planned, purposeful-and "habitual"-that inflexible automatically evoked by stimuli. This distinction is central to conceptions of pathological compulsion, as drug abuse obsessive-compulsive disorder. Evidence for the has primarily come from outcome devaluation studies, which sensitivity a previously learned motivational change used assay dominance habits versus goal-directed actions. However,...

Theoretical models distinguish two decision-making strategies that have been formalized in reinforcement-learning theory. A model-based strategy leverages a cognitive model of potential actions and their consequences to make goal-directed choices, whereas model-free evaluates based solely on reward history. Research adults has begun elucidate the psychological mechanisms neural substrates underlying these learning processes factors influence relative recruitment. However, developmental...

Recent computational theories of decision making in humans and animals have portrayed 2 systems locked a battle for control behavior. One system--variously termed model-free or habitual--favors actions that previously led to reward, whereas second--called the model-based goal-directed system--favors causally lead reward according agent's internal model environment. Some evidence suggests can be shifted between these using neural behavioral manipulations, but other are more intertwined than...

Accounts of decision-making and its neural substrates have long posited the operation separate, competing valuation systems in control choice behavior. Recent theoretical experimental work suggest that this classic distinction between behaviorally neurally dissociable for habitual goal-directed (or more generally, automatic controlled) may arise from two computational strategies reinforcement learning (RL), called model-free model-based RL, but cognitive or processes by which one system...

Making decisions in sequentially structured tasks requires integrating distally acquired information. The extensive computational cost of such integration challenges planning methods that integrate online, at decision time. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether ‘offline’ during replay supports planning, and if so which memories should be replayed. Inspired by machine learning, we propose (a) offline trajectories facilitates representations guide decisions, (b) unsigned prediction errors...

Adverse effects following acute stress are traditionally thought to reflect functional impairments of central executive-dependent cognitive-control processes. However, recent evidence demonstrates that application is perceived as effortful and aversive, indicating stress-related decrements in cognitive performance could denote decreased motivation expend effort instead. To investigate this hypothesis, we tested 40 young, healthy individuals (20 female, 20 male) under both control conditions...

Multilevel modeling techniques have gained traction among experimental psychologists for their ability to account dependencies in nested data structures. Increasingly, these are extended the analysis of binary (e.g., correct or incorrect responses). Despite popularity, information logistic multilevel models is often underutilized when researchers focus solely on fixed effects and ignore important heterogeneity that exists between participants. In this tutorial, we review four estimating...

In non-stationary environments, there is a conflict between exploiting currently favored options and gaining information by exploring lesser-known that in the past have proven less rewarding. Optimal decision making such tasks requires considering future states of environment (i.e., planning) properly updating beliefs about state after observing outcomes associated with choices. belief-updating reflective can change without directly environmental change. For example, ten seconds elapse, one...

Primarily based on laboratory studies, theories of affect propose that emotions are driven by the valence outcomes as well difference between outcome itself and expected (i.e., prediction error [PE]). Yet no work has assessed drivers emotion using real-world, personally meaningful events timescales over which human unfolds. We developed an event-triggered, ecological momentary assessment procedure measuring positive negative (PA NA, respectively) in university students they received exam...

Abstract Compulsive behaviors (e.g., addiction) can be viewed as an aberrant decision process where inflexible reactions automatically evoked by stimuli (habit) take control over making to the detriment of a more flexible (goal-oriented) behavioral learning system. These are thought arise from algorithms known “model-based” and “model-free” reinforcement learning. Gambling disorder, form addiction without confound neurotoxic effects drugs, showed impaired goal-directed but way in which...

Cognitive effort is described as aversive, and people will generally avoid it when possible. This aversion to believed arise from a cost–benefit analysis of the actions available. The comparison cognitive against other primary aversive experiences, however, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we offered participants choices between performing cognitively demanding task or experiencing thermal pain. We found that can be traded off for physical pain exerting high levels effort. also used...

Positive mood can affect a person's tendency to gamble, possibly because positive fosters unrealistic optimism. At the same time, unexpected outcomes, often called prediction errors, influence mood. However, linkage between errors-the difference expected and obtained outcomes-and consequent risk taking has yet be demonstrated. Using large data set of New York City lottery gambling model inspired by computational accounts reward learning, we found that people gamble more when incidental...

Stress broadly affects the ability to regulate emotions and may contribute generalization of threat-related behaviors harmless stimuli. Behavioral also tends increase over time as memory precision for recent events gives way more gist-like representations. Thus, acute stress coupled with a delay in from negative experience be strong predictor transition normal generalized fear expression. Here, we investigated effect single-episode stressor on aversive learning when is administered either...

Although people seek to avoid expenditure of cognitive effort, reward incentives can increase investment processing resources in challenging situations that require control, resulting improved performance.At the same time, subjective value is relative, rather than absolute: The a increased if local context reward-poor versus reward-rich.Although this notion supported by work economics and psychology, we propose relativity should also play critical role cost-benefit computations inform effort...

Abstract Impulsivity and stress exposure are two factors that associated with changes in reward-related behavior ways relevant to both healthy maladaptive decision-making. Nonetheless, little empirical work has examined the possible independent joint effects of these upon reward learning. Here, we sought examine how trait impulsivity acute affect participants’ choice decision speed a two-stage sequential reinforcement-learning task. We found more impulsive participants were likely repeat...

While enforcing egalitarian social norms is critical for human society, punishing norm violators often incurs a cost to the self. This looms even larger when one can benefit from an unequal distribution of resources, phenomenon known as advantageous inequity—for example, receiving higher salary than colleague with identical role. In Ultimatum Game, classic testbed fairness enforcement, individuals rarely reject (or punish) such proposed divisions resources because doing so entails sacrifice...

While enforcing egalitarian social norms is critical for human society, punishing norm violators often incurs a cost to the self. This looms even larger when one can benefit from an unequal distribution of resources, phenomenon known as advantageous inequity—for example, receiving higher salary than colleague with identical role. In Ultimatum Game, classic testbed fairness enforcement, individuals rarely reject (or punish) such proposed divisions resources because doing so entails sacrifice...

Adults often titrate the degree of their cognitive effort in an economical manner: they "think hard" when reward benefits a task exceed its difficulty costs. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether and how children adolescents adjust according multiple cues about worthwhileness, including novel environments where these must learned through experience. Given that processing incentive demand information changes with age, present study examines participants' (primary experiment Nusable =...