Neurodynamical model of confidence decision-making in LIP

Abstract

Decision confidence, the degree of certainty to which a subject believes his choice is correct, is an emerging subject in neuroscience. On one hand it is a fundamen- tal component of our subjective conscious experience. On the other hand it is crucial to many cognitive func- tions like action planning and learning. In the past the speed accuracy trade-off in decision-making has received much attention by the scientific community since it is a key aspect of simple decisions, used in experimental conditions. In the context of complex more “real” envir- onments, where different strategies can be applied, besides speed and accuracy, flexibility also become very important. Flexibility is the ability of an agent to explore and use alternative strategies in order to reach the goals. In a more simple view flexibility is the ability of taking into account more options in a decision process. The selection between alternative strategies can be regulated by evaluating the confidence in a choice. If the confi- dence is too low and other strategies are available, then the subject will try an alternative. Therefore evaluating the confidence in a choice can be particularly helpful for agents in complex dynamic environments.