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Decision Making

Decision Making

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...

Reason and Intuition

Reason and Intuition

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 brain can only use...

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective.
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

Decision Making: Traditional Method

Decision Making: Traditional Method

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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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 28, 2026

An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents

An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents

Published on: August 2, 2018

Persistent decision-making in mice, monkeys and humans.

Veldon-James Laurie¹, Akram Shourkeshti¹, Cathy S Chen^2,3

¹Department of Neuroscience, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|May 26, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Humans and monkeys show similar persistence in decision-making tasks, outperforming mice. This suggests behavioral persistence may be conserved across primate species, potentially due to ecological or cognitive differences.

Keywords:

bandit task behaviour cognition cross-species decision-making explore–exploit dilemma humans mice modelling monkeys

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Published on: February 26, 2014

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Last Updated: May 28, 2026

An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents

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Published on: August 2, 2018

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Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction

Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction

Published on: February 26, 2014

Area of Science:

Behavioral neuroscience
Comparative psychology
Cognitive science

Background:

Persistence in behavioral policies is crucial for executive functions.
It is unknown if this human capacity is conserved across species.
Understanding species-specific persistence informs cognitive evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare persistence in humans, mice, and monkeys.
To investigate if behavioral persistence is conserved across species.
To identify factors influencing interspecies differences in persistence.

Main Methods:

Harmonized dynamic decision-making task administered to humans, mice, and monkeys.
Task required balancing policy exploitation and exploration.
Behavioral strategies and persistence durations were analyzed.

Main Results:

All species employed similar strategies in the task.
Humans and monkeys persisted longer in exploitation than mice.
Primate persistence patterns were more similar to each other than to mice.

Conclusions:

Behavioral persistence is not unique to humans.
Primate persistence may be conserved due to shared ecological, neurobiological, or cognitive factors.
Mice exhibit distinct persistence patterns compared to primates.