Computational Psychiatry of Decision Making
When decision algorithms misfire, the result isn't just bad choices—it's psychiatric illness.
The Architecture of Preferential Choice
How memory retrieval, query order, and cognitive constraints build your preferences from scratch each time you choose
How Context Shapes Preference: Computational Accounts
Formal models reveal why adding an unchosen option can reverse your preference between the ones that matter
Information Seeking as Optimal Decision Policy
A formal framework revealing curiosity and information gathering as mathematically optimal strategies in the face of uncertainty.
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Self-Control
How your prefrontal cortex transforms what temptations are worth to you in the moment of choice
Attention as a Constraint on Rational Choice
Before you can choose the best option, you must decide where to look—making attention allocation the hidden first move in every decision.
Why Risk Preferences Change Across Domains
Your risk tolerance isn't a personality trait—it's a context-dependent computation that differs across every domain of life.
Probability Distortions in Risk Judgment
Why we systematically misjudge rare and common events, and what mathematics reveals about the mechanisms
Neural Representations of Uncertainty
How the brain distinguishes known unknowns from unknown unknowns—and adjusts learning accordingly
Reinforcement Learning Models of Human Choice
How dopamine, prediction errors, and dual learning systems explain both the flexibility and the failures of human decision-making.
The Computation of Regret in Decision Making
How the brain simulates parallel worlds to compute what we should have done—and uses these phantom outcomes to choose better next time.
Why Framing Effects Resist Debiasing
Training, warnings, and expertise fail to eliminate framing effects—the neural and computational reasons explain why.
Game Theory Meets Neuroscience: Strategic Decision Making
How neural architecture constrains and enables the computations underlying strategic choice and social reasoning
Multi-Attribute Choice: Integration or Elimination?
How your brain chooses between computing everything and eliminating ruthlessly—and why it switches strategies depending on the stakes.
The Neuroscience of Loss Aversion
Neural evidence reveals loss aversion emerges from distributed brain networks rather than a single valuation mechanism, explaining both its robustness and surprising flexibility
How Drift-Diffusion Models Explain Response Time
Discover how a simple stochastic equation predicts your choices, response times, and confidence simultaneously through evidence accumulation mathematics.
Prospect Theory's Mathematical Architecture
How three mathematical innovations—curved value functions, warped probability weights, and shifting reference points—explain why humans systematically deviate from rational choice theory.
The Neural Currency Problem in Value-Based Choice
How does your brain compare incomparable rewards? The search for neural common currency reveals a system far more dynamic and context-dependent than rational choice theory assumed.
Why Expected Utility Theory Fails in the Brain
The elegant mathematics of rational choice meets the messy reality of neural computation—and the brain's solutions reveal why perfect rationality was never biologically possible.
The Computational Cost of Optimal Choice
Why perfect decisions are mathematically impossible—and why that makes your quick judgments smarter than you thought.
Temporal Discounting: Hyperbolic vs. Exponential Models
Why your brain values the future inconsistently, and what competing mathematical models reveal about the architecture of choice across time.