Selective Integration: An Attentional Theory of Choice Biases and Adaptive Choice

Marius Usher, Konstantinos Tsetsos*, Moshe Glickman, Nick Chater

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human choice behavior shows a range of puzzling anomalies. Even simple binary choices are modified by accept/reject framing and by the presence of decoy options, and they can exhibit circular (i.e., intransitive) patterns of preferences. Each of these phenomena is incompatible with many standard models of choice but may provide crucial clues concerning the elementary mental processes underpinning our choices. One promising theoretical account proposes that choice-related information is selectively gathered through an attentionally limited window favoring goal-consistent information. We review research showing attentional-mediated choice biases and present a computationally explicit model—selective integration—that accounts for these biases.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)552-559
Number of pages8
JournalCurrent Directions in Psychological Science
Volume28
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2019

Funding

FundersFunder number
Economic and Social Research Council Network for Integrated Behavioural Science
European Research Council
UK Research and Innovation
Economic and Social Research CouncilES/P008976/1
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2014612
Israel Science Foundation1413/17
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme802905

    Keywords

    • adaptivity
    • choice biases
    • decision making
    • decoy effects
    • framing
    • noise
    • selective attention
    • transitivity violation

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