Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.

The brain can remarkably adapt its decision-making process to suit the dynamic environment and diverse aims and demands. The brain's flexibility can be classified into three categories: flexibility in choosing solutions, decision policies, and actions. We employ two experiments to explore flexi...

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Main Authors: Masoumeh Golmohamadian, Mehrbod Faraji, Fatemeh Fallah, Fatemeh Sharifizadeh, Reza Ebrahimpour
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316320
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author Masoumeh Golmohamadian
Mehrbod Faraji
Fatemeh Fallah
Fatemeh Sharifizadeh
Reza Ebrahimpour
author_facet Masoumeh Golmohamadian
Mehrbod Faraji
Fatemeh Fallah
Fatemeh Sharifizadeh
Reza Ebrahimpour
author_sort Masoumeh Golmohamadian
collection DOAJ
description The brain can remarkably adapt its decision-making process to suit the dynamic environment and diverse aims and demands. The brain's flexibility can be classified into three categories: flexibility in choosing solutions, decision policies, and actions. We employ two experiments to explore flexibility in decision policy: a visual object categorization task and an auditory object categorization task. Both tasks required participants to accumulate discrete evidence over time, with the only difference being the sensory state of the stimuli. We aim to investigate how the brain demonstrates flexibility in selecting decision policies in different sensory contexts when the solution and action remain the same. Our results indicate that the decision policy of the brain in integrating information is independent of inter-pulse interval across these two tasks. However, the decision policy based on how the brain ranks the first and second pulse of evidence changes flexibly. We show that the sequence of pulses does not affect the choice accuracy in the auditory mode. However, in the visual mode, the first pulse had the larger leverage on decisions. Our research underscores the importance of incorporating diverse contexts to improve our understanding of the brain's flexibility in real-world decision-making.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
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spelling doaj-art-526d08b159584d0393fa7b5238593fa72025-02-05T05:31:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01201e031632010.1371/journal.pone.0316320Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.Masoumeh GolmohamadianMehrbod FarajiFatemeh FallahFatemeh SharifizadehReza EbrahimpourThe brain can remarkably adapt its decision-making process to suit the dynamic environment and diverse aims and demands. The brain's flexibility can be classified into three categories: flexibility in choosing solutions, decision policies, and actions. We employ two experiments to explore flexibility in decision policy: a visual object categorization task and an auditory object categorization task. Both tasks required participants to accumulate discrete evidence over time, with the only difference being the sensory state of the stimuli. We aim to investigate how the brain demonstrates flexibility in selecting decision policies in different sensory contexts when the solution and action remain the same. Our results indicate that the decision policy of the brain in integrating information is independent of inter-pulse interval across these two tasks. However, the decision policy based on how the brain ranks the first and second pulse of evidence changes flexibly. We show that the sequence of pulses does not affect the choice accuracy in the auditory mode. However, in the visual mode, the first pulse had the larger leverage on decisions. Our research underscores the importance of incorporating diverse contexts to improve our understanding of the brain's flexibility in real-world decision-making.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316320
spellingShingle Masoumeh Golmohamadian
Mehrbod Faraji
Fatemeh Fallah
Fatemeh Sharifizadeh
Reza Ebrahimpour
Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
PLoS ONE
title Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
title_full Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
title_fullStr Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
title_full_unstemmed Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
title_short Flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time.
title_sort flexibility in choosing decision policies in gathering discrete evidence over time
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316320
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AT fatemehfallah flexibilityinchoosingdecisionpoliciesingatheringdiscreteevidenceovertime
AT fatemehsharifizadeh flexibilityinchoosingdecisionpoliciesingatheringdiscreteevidenceovertime
AT rezaebrahimpour flexibilityinchoosingdecisionpoliciesingatheringdiscreteevidenceovertime