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Related Concept Videos

Decision Making01:20

Decision Making

277
Decision-making is a fundamental cognitive process that involves evaluating alternatives and selecting among them. This process can range from simple choices, such as deciding what to wear, to complex decisions, like choosing a major in college or a career path. The complexity of the decision often dictates the approach we use, which can be broadly categorized into two types: automatic and controlled decision-making.
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...
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Decision Making: Traditional Method01:14

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The process of hypothesis testing based on the traditional method includes calculating the critical value, testing the value of the test statistic using the sample data, and interpreting these values.
First, a specific claim about the population parameter is decided based on the research question and is stated in a simple form. Further, an opposing statement to this claim is also stated. These statements can act as null and alternative hypotheses, out of which a null hypothesis would be a...
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Reason and Intuition01:37

Reason and Intuition

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The human brain processes information for decision-making using one of two routes: an intuitive system and a rational system (Epstein, 1994; popularized by Kahneman, 2011 as System 1 and System 2, respectively). The intuitive system is quick, impulsive, and operates with minimal effort, relying on emotions or habits to provide cues for what to do next, while the rational system is logical, analytical, deliberate, and methodical. Research in neuropsychology suggests that the...
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Decision Making: P-value Method01:09

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The process of hypothesis testing based on the P-value method includes calculating the P- value using the sample data and interpreting it.
First, a specific claim about the population parameter is proposed. The claim is based on the research question and is stated in a simple form. Further, an opposing statement to the claim  is also stated. These statements can act as null and alternative hypotheses:  a null hypothesis would be a neutral statement while the alternative hypothesis can...
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Motivational Bias01:25

Motivational Bias

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Cognitive bias results from limitations in thinking and information processing, leading to systematic errors in judgment. Conversely, motivational bias stems from personal desires or emotions, causing distortions in perception to align with self-interest. Motivational bias influences how individuals perceive and attribute causes to events, often shaped by personal needs, goals, and self-esteem preservation. This bias can distort judgment, leading to inaccurate assessments of success, failure,...
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Instinctive Drift01:05

Instinctive Drift

361
Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 2, 2025

An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents
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Experienced entropy drives choice behavior in a boring decision-making task.

Johannes P-H Seiler1,2, Ohad Dan3, Oliver Tüscher4,5

  • 1Institute of Physiology, Focus Program Translational Neurosciences (FTN), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Hanns-Dieter-Hüsch-Weg 19, 55131, Mainz, Germany. johseile@uni-mainz.de.

Scientific Reports
|February 25, 2022
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People avoid monotonous situations when bored, a finding supported by decision-making tasks. Information gain, measured by stimulus entropy, predicts this behavior, highlighting boredom's role in seeking novel information.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Boredom is an aversive state linked to monotonous environments and a lack of engaging activities.
  • The situational triggers and behavioral consequences of boredom are not fully understood.
  • Existing research lacks a comprehensive model explaining how boredom influences choice behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the situational factors that induce boredom.
  • To understand how boredom influences decision-making and subsequent behavior.
  • To identify quantifiable measures that predict behavior in monotonous conditions.

Main Methods:

  • A two-alternative forced-choice task was designed with varying degrees of sensory monotony.
  • Human subjects participated in laboratory and online experiments to assess decision biases.
  • Theoretical modeling was employed to analyze the relationship between information gain and choice behavior.

Main Results:

  • Subjects exhibited a decision-making bias, avoiding more monotonous options, which correlated with self-reported boredom.
  • This boredom-specific bias was distinct from responses to curiosity-inducing stimuli.
  • The entropy of experienced stimuli, representing information gain, was a key predictor of choice behavior.

Conclusions:

  • Boredom actively drives behavioral choices, influencing individuals to avoid monotony.
  • Information gain is a critical factor in understanding and predicting behavior under boredom.
  • This research provides a framework for the role of boredom in maintaining a continuous flow of information to the brain.