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Decision analysis is concerned with the development of prescriptive methods for improving difficult real-life decisions. The basic principle is to divide and conquer, a complex decision is broken down into small manageable parts, judgments are made with respect to each part, and small parts are recombined to form an overall evaluation. Sequential-sampling models such as decision-field theory can be viewed as dynamic extensions of the traditional decision theories. Therefore, sequential sampling models provide a theoretical bridge between traditional decision theories and naturalistic decisions. Three related programs of research have examined judgment or decision making through what could be called a situated cognition perspective. Dynamic theories of decision making have the power to explain the basic findings from laboratory experiments, such as context-dependent preferences, as well as new phenomena that arise in the study of naturalistic decisions.

Animals detect and acquire resources through a sequence of shape changes. This process is tightly coupled to the sensory and mechanical ecology of the animal. Building physical models allow us to prescind from modeling these aspects of the environment, which may not yet be described or suitably abstracted. The significance of this hybrid of physical modeling and experimentation to the acquisition of scientific knowledge is discussed.

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Chapter 26 - Neuroethology

Summary

How building physical models can reduce and guide the abstraction of nature

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3 results

Contributors

Chapter 26 - Neuroethology

Summary

How building physical models can reduce and guide the abstraction of nature