Neural Signatures of Rational and Heuristic Choice Strategies: A Single Trial ERP Analysis

Abstract

In multi-attribute choice, people use heuristics to simplify decision problems. We studied the use of heuristic and rational strategies and their electrophysiological correlates. Since previous work linked the P3 ERP component to attention and decision making, we were interested whether the amplitude of this component is associated with decision strategy use. To this end, we recorded EEG when participants performed a two-alternative choice task, where they could acquire decision cues in a sequential manner and use them to make choices. We classified participants’ choices as consistent with a rational Weighted Additive rule (WADD) or a simple heuristic Take The Best (TTB). Participants differed in their preference for WADD and TTB. Using a permutation-based single trial approach, we analyzed EEG responses to consecutive decision cues and their relation to the individual strategy preference. The preference for WADD over TTB was associated with overall higher signal amplitudes to decision cues in the P3 time window. Moreover, the preference for WADD was associated with similar P3 amplitudes to consecutive cues, whereas the preference for TTB was associated with substantial decreases in P3 amplitudes to consecutive cues. We also found that the preference for TTB was associated with enhanced N1 component to cues that discriminated decision alternatives, suggesting very early attention allocation to such cues by TTB users. Our results suggest that preference for either WADD or TTB has an early neural signature reflecting differences in attentional weighting of decision cues. In light of recent findings and hypotheses regarding P3, we interpret these results as indicating the involvement of catecholamine arousal systems in shaping predecisional information processing and strategy selection.

Sociality Mental Modes Modulate the Processing of Advice-Giving: An Event-Related Potentials Study

“…Considerable research indicated that human brain was especially sensitive to negative information since the salient of valence, and that the negative information is preferentially processed relative to neutral and positive events ( Huang and Luo, 2006 ; Yuan et al, 2007 ; Gui et al, 2016 ). The higher N1 amplitude suggests that individuals pay more attention on this choice item at the early stage during the decision process ( Wichary et al, 2017 ). Thus, the enhance N1 reflected that the negative information attracted people much attention early during the decision-making process.…”

“…Some studies have revealed that brain regions such as the central and parietal region was recruited during the early stages of valence-related information processing ( Gui et al, 2016 ). The higher N1 amplitude suggests that individuals pay more attention on the valence of choice item very early during the decision process ( Wichary et al, 2017 ). Crucially, the amplitude variation of P300, which is a positive wave peaking roughly 300–500 ms at central and parietal electrodes ( Gu et al, 2011 ; Wang et al, 2017b ), is a typical ERP component in social decision-making.…”

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“…LMMs allow the inclusion of single trials in one group analysis, thus it is an ideal choice for combining EEG and fMRI measures. This analysis is less prone to Type I and II errors than traditional methods (Aarts, Verhage, Veenvliet, Dolan, & van der Sluis, 2014;Wichary, Magnuski, Oleksy, & Brzezicka, 2017). In this model, the individually normalized (z-scored) gamma value was treated as a predictor, whereas the individually normalized (z-scored) BOLD value at the peak of the hemodynamic response was treated as the dependent variable.…”

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“…As in perceptual studies, the feedback P3 may reflect update and storage of reward values for behavioral adjustment 25,[59][60][61][62] , by integrating them with internal models of a probabilistic task 63 . It may similarly reflect reward evidence accumulation dynamics 64 , possibly as a decision variable for strategic choice 65 .…”