Holistic intuition: from population codes to complex decisions

old_uid17554
titleHolistic intuition: from population codes to complex decisions
start_date2019/03/04
schedule15h15
onlineno
detailsHost: Benedetto de Martino
summaryIntuitive thinking is mostly associated with short-cut serial heuristics. Here I will propose the existence of a different type of intuition that is associated with holistic and compensatory processes that can be deployed in complex decision making. I will start with studies that show that, like in the perceptual domain, observers are able to accurately extract statistical summaries of rapid numerical sequences. I will then propose a neural (population-code) mechanism mediating these computations. Following I will show that preferences between alternatives consisting of rapid numerical sequences are dominated by the average (and modulated by variance). Finally, I will show that about 2/3 of the participants are carrying out multi-attribute decisions, by deploying a rapid weighted averaging mechanism, consistent with holistic processing. I will conclude with a demonstration that mind-set manipulations that encourage intuitive thinking, enhance the sensitivity of participants in a detection of trust task.
responsiblesLawrence