Enhancing models of social and strategic decision making with process tracing and neural data

Abstract

Every decision we take is accompanied by a characteristic pattern of response delay, gaze position, pupil dilation, and neural activity. Nevertheless, many models of social decision making neglect the corresponding process tracing data and focus exclusively on the final choice outcome. Here, we argue that this is a mistake, as the use of process data can help to build better models of human behavior, create better experiments, and improve policy interventions.Specifically, such data allow us to unlock the "black box" of the decision process and evaluate the mechanisms underlying our social choices. Using these data, we can directly validate latent model variables, arbitrate between competing personal motives, and capture information processing strategies. These benefits are especially valuable in social science, where models must predict multi-faceted decisions that are taken in varying contexts and are based on many different types of information.

A neural fingerprint of adaptive mentalization

“…In particular, several studies have proposed that the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) may serve as a primary hub of cognition related to mentalization 31,32,38,41,42 , and that its activity may therefore provide a neural measure of mentalization ability. However, it is increasingly recognized that TPJ activation per se is not specific to mentalization-related cognitive operations 32,43 and therefore cannot be used to infer whether people indeed engage in mentalizing 32 .…”

“…Understanding and measuring this critical dimension of mentalization at the neural level thus appears important for a range of applications, both clinical and non-clinical. For example, neural measures of the ability to adapt one's behavior to the changing strategies of an interaction partner could inform both economic and psychological models of mentalization 42 . Even more importantly, such measures could serve as a valuable tool for diagnosis and assessing the efficacy of clinical interventions 43,46,57 .…”

Neurocomputations of strategic behavior: From iterated to novel interactions

“…In cognitive and decision neuroscience, research has been focusing on establishing quantitative, neurobiologically plausible frameworks to decompose the intertwining cognitive operations underlying strategic choices observed in social animals and quantify their related neural processes (Camerer & Hare, 2014; Konovalov & Ruff, 2022; Lee & Seo, 2015; Montague & Lohrenz, 2007). Over the past decade, notable advances have been made in connecting brain circuits implicated in reward processing (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex [OFC], striatum, etc.)…”

Looking at choice blindness: Evidence from gaze patterns and pupil dilation

“…In process tracing researchers make timedependent, pre-decisional observations in order to make better inferences about the cognitive process that led to that decision. Methods employed can range from verbal protocols (Svenson, 1979), skin conductance measures (Crone et al, 2004), eye-tracking (Glaholt & Reingold, 2011;Pärnamets et al, 2016), to neural measurements (Konovalov & Ruff, 2022). In a choice blindness task, there are two relevant decision points.…”