PSYC 50.02 Decision Making: Linking Behavior to Brain
In our daily lives we are faced with many decisions: what to eat for lunch, whether to spend the next hour on Instagram or on homework, or what courses to take next quarter. Some of those decisions require gradual deliberation while others can be made quickly. Nevertheless, to make any decision we rely on external information and what outcomes we expect from those decisions. Decisions are easy to make if information is complete and the outcomes are certain. But how does the brain combine different sources of partial information to make decisions in the face of uncertain outcomes? In this course we will examine decision making from both behavioral and neurobiological points of view. Specifically, we will learn about different methods used in psychology, economics, and neuroscience (e.g. operant conditioning, game theory, reinforcement learning, prospect theory, electrophysiology, neuroimaging) to study decision making at various levels, from cognitive processes to underpinning neural activity and mechanisms.
Instructor
Soltani