July 3, 2014, by Suzanne

Sudeep Bhatia on Sequential sampling and paradoxes of risky choice

Sudeep Bhatia

Sudeep Bhatia, NIBS Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, recently published ‘Sequential sampling and paradoxes of risky choice‘ in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (June 2014).

Abstract: The common-ratio, common-consequence, reflection, and event-splitting effects are some of the best-known findings in decision-making research. They represent robust violations of expected utility theory, and together form a benchmark against which descriptive theories of risky choice are tested. These effects are not currently predicted by sequential sampling models of risky choice, such as decision field theory (Busemeyer & Townsend 1993). This paper, however, shows that a minor extension to decision field theory, which allows for stochastic error in event sampling, can provide a parsimonious, cognitively plausible explanation for these effects. Moreover, these effects are guaranteed to emerge for a large range of parameter values, including best-fit parameters obtained from preexisting choice data.

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