13,778 research outputs found
A canonical theory of dynamic decision-making
Decision-making behavior is studied in many very different fields, from medicine and eco- nomics to psychology and neuroscience, with major contributions from mathematics and statistics, computer science, AI, and other technical disciplines. However the conceptual- ization of what decision-making is and methods for studying it vary greatly and this has resulted in fragmentation of the field. A theory that can accommodate various perspectives may facilitate interdisciplinary working. We present such a theory in which decision-making is articulated as a set of canonical functions that are sufficiently general to accommodate diverse viewpoints, yet sufficiently precise that they can be instantiated in different ways for specific theoretical or practical purposes. The canons cover the whole decision cycle, from the framing of a decision based on the goals, beliefs, and background knowledge of the decision-maker to the formulation of decision options, establishing preferences over them, and making commitments. Commitments can lead to the initiation of new decisions and any step in the cycle can incorporate reasoning about previous decisions and the rationales for them, and lead to revising or abandoning existing commitments. The theory situates decision-making with respect to other high-level cognitive capabilities like problem solving, planning, and collaborative decision-making. The canonical approach is assessed in three domains: cognitive and neuropsychology, artificial intelligence, and decision engineering
EXODUS: Integrating intelligent systems for launch operations support
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is developing knowledge-based systems to automate critical operations functions for the space shuttle fleet. Intelligent systems will monitor vehicle and ground support subsystems for anomalies, assist in isolating and managing faults, and plan and schedule shuttle operations activities. These applications are being developed independently of one another, using different representation schemes, reasoning and control models, and hardware platforms. KSC has recently initiated the EXODUS project to integrate these stand alone applications into a unified, coordinated intelligent operations support system. EXODUS will be constructed using SOCIAL, a tool for developing distributed intelligent systems. EXODUS, SOCIAL, and initial prototyping efforts using SOCIAL to integrate and coordinate selected EXODUS applications are described
Foraging as an evidence accumulation process
A canonical foraging task is the patch-leaving problem, in which a forager
must decide to leave a current resource in search for another. Theoretical work
has derived optimal strategies for when to leave a patch, and experiments have
tested for conditions where animals do or do not follow an optimal strategy.
Nevertheless, models of patch-leaving decisions do not consider the imperfect
and noisy sampling process through which an animal gathers information, and how
this process is constrained by neurobiological mechanisms. In this theoretical
study, we formulate an evidence accumulation model of patch-leaving decisions
where the animal averages over noisy measurements to estimate the state of the
current patch and the overall environment. Evidence accumulation models belong
to the class of drift diffusion processes and have been used to model decision
making in different contexts. We solve the model for conditions where foraging
decisions are optimal and equivalent to the marginal value theorem, and perform
simulations to analyze deviations from optimal when these conditions are not
met. By adjusting the drift rate and decision threshold, the model can
represent different strategies, for example an increment-decrement or counting
strategy. These strategies yield identical decisions in the limiting case but
differ in how patch residence times adapt when the foraging environment is
uncertain. To account for sub-optimal decisions, we introduce an
energy-dependent utility function that predicts longer than optimal patch
residence times when food is plentiful. Our model provides a quantitative
connection between ecological models of foraging behavior and evidence
accumulation models of decision making. Moreover, it provides a theoretical
framework for potential experiments which seek to identify neural circuits
underlying patch leaving decisions
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