Browsing by Subject "Decision-making"
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Item A Transcendental Phenomenological Examination on the Impact of Advising on the Decision to Study Abroad(2014-08-06) Henry, Julianne ShaunaAgricultural students are falling behind when it comes to competing in the global marketplace. To help prepare students to compete in the global marketplace, participation in a high-impact experience such as study abroad is recommended. In order to increase high-impact experiences for agricultural students, it is important to understand advisor and peer advisor perspectives. The purpose of this study was to understand departmental advisors? and peer advisors? perceptions related to a student?s intent to study abroad through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. Qualitative research methods were used to complete this study. Azjen?s Theory of Planned Behavior provided the framework to explore advisors? and peer advisors? perceptions related to a student?s intent to study abroad. The first phase of the study was a qualitative phenomenological examination of the shared experiences of High-Impact Practice (HIP) Advisors in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University who hold advising roles and participated in a high-impact experience through the college. This study focused on the advisors? perceptions and experience in study abroad. Data were collected through interviews. Departmental culture, personal connections, mass communication, and generating awareness emerged as themes. The results suggest influences such as departmental culture, personal connections, and mass communication influence whether students participated in study abroad. In addition, it became evident that advisors need to be better informed about available resources. The second phase of the study was a transcendental phenomenological exploration of the shared experiences of peer advisors in the Ambassadors and Mentors Study Abroad Program who have participated in study abroad through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, plus their perceptions related to a student?s intent to study abroad in the college. Data were collected through interviews. Educating peers, personal connections, mass communication, and generating awareness emerged as themes. The results suggest educating peers, personal connections, mass communications, and generating awareness influenced how peer advisors informed students and learned about study abroad in the college.Item Applicant Attitudes across the Recruitment Process: Time is of the Essence(2012-07-16) Swider, BrianWhile extant research on recruiting has highlighted a number of applicant attitudes that predict future attitudes and decisions, questions regarding how attitudes develop over time and differentially predict applicant job choice have received scant attention. To address this currently impoverished research area, this study utilizes three prominent recruitment frameworks (signaling theory, fit, and image) to theoretically and empirically examine how applicant attitudes towards possible future employers develop over the course of the recruitment process. Also, this study explores the possible divergent patterns of development of these applicant attitudes by examining taking a job offer and passing on a job offer as two separate decision-making processes. Finally, this study investigates the pattern of relationships between proximal predictors of job choice (organizational attraction and acceptance intentions) and applicant decisions to take or pass on a job offer. Participants in this study were 178 undergraduates seeking internships during a five-month recruitment period. Applicant attitudes about organizational image, fit, attraction, acceptance intentions as well as recruiter trustworthiness and timeliness of a consistent set of firms were assessed eight times over the five-month period. Results of this study indicate that recruiting, from an applicant perspective, is a dynamic decision-making process where applicants gather and assimilate information in distinct patterns prior to making job choice decisions. Specifically, across six applicant attitudes that have previously been shown to predict recruiting outcomes such as job choice, applicant attitudes toward the organization they take an offer from increase, and at a faster rate, over time relative to organizations whose offers they pass. These attitudes significantly differ between offers that are ultimately taken and passed on as early as the start of the recruitment process (i.e. image) or as late as slightly more than three weeks (i.e. fit) into a five-month recruitment process.Item Belief-directed exploration in human decision-makers : behavioral and physiological evidence(2012-05) Otto, Anthony Ross, 1983-; Markman, Arthur B.; Love, Bradley C.; Huk, Alexander; Poldrack, Russell; Gureckis, ToddDecision-making in uncertain environments poses a conflict between the goals of exploiting past knowledge in order to maximize rewards and exploring less-known options in order to gather information. The descriptive modeling framework utilized in previous studies of exploratory choice behavior characterizes exploration as the result of a noisy decision process, rather than a process reflecting beliefs and/or uncertainty about the environment. It stands to reason that people do not merely negotiate the exploration-exploitation dilemma by stochastically making choices, but rather, fully utilize their knowledge of the environment structure and integrate their trial-by-trial observations of choice in order to direct exploratory choice. The work presented in this dissertation evaluates this hypothesis. As the previous used tasks structures and descriptive models obfuscate this more sophisticated form of belief-directed exploration, I describe a novel exploration-exploitation task that affords disentanglement of reflective belief-directed exploration strategy from a reflexive and naïve exploration strategy. The former strategy is distinguished from latter by its ability to update its belief states in the absence of direct observations of choice payoff changes. Accordingly, we specify cognitive models instantiating these two choice strategies and in the first experiment, we find evidence that behavior is by and large better characterized by a reflective strategy, and further, that choice latencies appear to index value computations carried out in implementing such a strategy. In a second experiment, I reveal how physiological arousal (measured by Skin Conductance Responses) appears to index a form of value computation similar to what is prescribed this reflective model, and further, how individual differences in physiological response to these value signals bear on choice behavior. In a third experiment, I demonstrate how this sophisticated form of choice behavior carries cognitive costs, and following the contemporary model-based/model-free reinforcement learning framework, I show how placing concurrent decision-makers under cognitive load diminishes the contribution of the more sophisticated reflective exploration strategy, fostering reliance on stochastic, reflexive form of exploratory choice behavior.Item Bridging the gap between psychological and neural models of judgment : applying a dual-process framework to neural systems of social and emotional judgment(2012-05) Bhanji, Jamil Palacios; Beer, Jennifer S., 1974-; Maddox, W T.; Henderson, Marlone D.; Gershoff, Andrew D.; Schnyer, David M.Psychological models of judgment and decision-making that focus on dual processes distinguish between two modes of judgment. One mode of judgment uses incomplete, probabilistic associations that lead to good-enough judgments for most situations. A second mode of judgment uses more complete information and applies deterministic decision rules to reason through a decision. The two modes operate in parallel but they can also interact and may be viewed as ends of a continuum. Although some psychology researchers have hypothesized that the two modes of information processing are carried out by distinct neural systems, neural research has not fully tested the distinctions that psychological research has drawn between the two modes. Three studies aim to address the gap between psychological and neural models of judgment and decision-making. Study 1 addresses the lack of neural research comparing judgments based on probabilistic information (characteristic of the first mode of judgment in dual-process models) with judgments based on deterministic rules (characteristic of the second mode of judgment in dual-process models). Specifically, Study 1 compares basic probabilistic judgments and deterministic rule-based judgments to identify neural regions that are preferentially associated with one mode of judgment. Study 2 moves toward a more ecologically valid investigation of neural systems associated with judgments based on probabilistic associations. That is, Study 2 examines a probabilistic cue that is used in real-world judgments: affect. Study 3 examines neural regions associated with the interaction of the two modes of judgment in the underexplored domain of social evaluation. Modes of judgment may interact when the second mode of judgment uses new information to adjust a judgment previously driven by the first mode of judgment, as when a hiring manager uses information about a job candidate to adjust a first impression initially based on appearance. Study 3 examines the neural systems involved when people use newly available information to adjust a previously made affectively-driven judgment. Findings in the three studies contribute to scientific understanding of how neural regions support judgment, but do not definitively identify separable neural systems for dual-process modes of judgment.Item The contentiousness of land use decisions in Austin, Texas(2012-12) Bojo, Leah Michel; Oden, Michael; Wilson, Robert HinesAustin is alleged to be more contentious than its peer cities with regard to land use decisions. Local blogs and media are critical of the city’s land development code and public processes and there is a perception of unfairness when it comes to changing the city’s zoning ordinance. This research explores land use decisions in Austin, El Paso, and Denver. I look at the level of conflict and the public processes in each city to understand the factors that may make Austin feel more contentious than other cities or if that heightened contentiousness is only the perception of an inherently controversial issue. Through the data collection I found that Austin does have many more changes proposed and granted to its zoning ordinance than its peer cities, likely because of how complicated and out-of-date the land development code is. The approval ratings are similarly high across all cities. This high number of changes, combined with an even higher number of zoning items posted to council agendas but then postponed, may be perpetuating a perception that the land use covenant between the citizens and the city is being amended more often than it should be. I also look at innovative ways that cities across the country are reducing conflict, or the perception of it, with regard to public input, code structures, and public education. With its approval of a new comprehensive plan, Austin is poised to rewrite its land development regulations. The city would likely benefit from exploring some of these, and other, creative solutions to these common municipal conflicts.Item Decision-making in the primate brain : formation, location, and causal manipulation(2016-05) Katz, Leor Nadav; Huk, Alexander C.; Aldrich, Richard; Cormack, Lawrence K; Hayhoe, Mary; Priebe, Nicholas; Seidmann, EyalInteraction within the environment relies on the ability to accumulate sensory evidence in favor of a decision. Despite the paramount importance of decision-making to survival, the neural instantiations and computational principles governing the process have remained elusive. In this thesis I consider how sensory evidence is accumulated to guide decisions, and where in the primate brain this process takes place. I report the results of three main experiments. In the first, I test whether sensory evidence is accumulated differentially for motion in the frontoparallel plane (i.e. 2D motion; left/right) compared to motion through depth (i.e. 3D motion; towards/away). I show that integration of 3D motion is different than 2D and likely relies on a mechanism that is distinct. In the second experiment, I test an influential theory in cognitive neuroscience: that neurons in the monkey lateral intraparietal (LIP) cortex accumulate sensory information in favor of a decision communicated by an eye-movement. I found that despite strong correlations between LIP responses and decisions, reversible inactivation of neurons in LIP had no measurable impact on decision-making performance. More generally, I show that decision-related activity does not necessarily play a causal role in choices. In the final experiment, I test whether the process of making a decision stands to influence functions that are decision irrelevant. I found that causally manipulating the amount of sensory evidence available to human observers influenced decision-irrelevant oculomotor commands, suggesting that even during non- oculomotor decisions, oculomotor regions of the brain are recruited. Taken together, the experimental findings reported motivate new ideas about evidence accumulation and advance our understanding of the decision-making process in the primate brain.Item Decision-making signals in the primate parietal cortex(2012-05) Meister, Miriam Lucia Roth; Huk, Alexander; Geisler, Wilson; Priebe, Nicholas; Mauk, Michael; Seidemann, EyalLateral intraparietal area (LIP) neurons are thought to compute the decision of where to look. Specifically, their firing rate is thought to represent accumulated evidence for a decision by ramping up to a high level, the putative decision bound, before an eye movement to a given location. However, LIP neurons are also highly responsive to visual stimuli. Because all previous research put a visual stimulus (a saccadic target) in the response field (RF) location of a neuron during decision formation, it is unknown if LIP neurons can still show decision computation without this visual drive. We therefore recorded the spiking activity of LIP neurons in a conventional decision task where a monkey decides the direction of a noisy motion stimulus and indicates his decision with a saccade. On half the trials, the Choice Targets remained on for the whole trial, as is conventionally done. On the remaining trials, targets were flashed at the beginning of the trial and absent during motion-viewing. Furthermore, we recorded the activity of any neuron with an RF, instead of only neurons exhibiting persistent memory activity before an instructed saccade. This enabled us to also test the long-held assumption that only cells with persistent memory activity show decision signals. Our results show that 1) cells without persistent activity indeed show decision signals, 2) population response drops without RF stimulation (although individual neurons were affected in diverse ways), 3) distinct, repeating response “motifs” exist among cells, 4) a signal exists where neural response is lower for stronger motion strength stimuli, regardless of direction. These results prove that contrary to dogma, a neuron’s ability to show a long “memory” response is not related to an ability to accumulate evidence over time for a decision. Also, LIP firing rate cannot be interpreted as a pure decision variable because it simultaneously represents decision-irrelevant, visual stimuli. Finally, diverse, but repeating responses among cells suggest the existence of cell types in LIP. These results demonstrate that LIP acts as a bank of potentially useful signals, and raises the question of how they might be used for a decision.Item Design with Uncertain Technology Evolution(2012-10-19) Arendt, Jonathan LeeDesign is an uncertain human activity involving decisions with uncertain outcomes. Sources of uncertainty in product design include uncertainty in modeling methods, market preferences, and performance levels of subsystem technologies, among many others. The performance of a technology evolves over time exhibiting improving performance as research and development efforts continue. As the performance of a technology in the future is uncertain, quantifying the evolution of these technologies poses a challenge in making design decisions. Designing systems involving evolving technologies is a poorly understood problem. The objective of this research is to create a computational method allowing designers to make decisions encompassing the evolution of technology. Techniques for modeling evolution of a technology that has multiple performance attributes are developed. An S-curve technology evolution model is used. The performance of a technology develops slowly at first, quickly during heavy R&D effort, and slowly again as the performance approaches its limits. Pareto frontiers represent the set of optimal solutions that the decision maker can select from. As the performance of a technology develops, the Pareto frontier shifts to a new location. The assumed S-curve form of technology development allows the designer to apply the uncertainty of technology development directly to the S-curve evolution model rather than applying the uncertainty to the performance, giving a more focused application of uncertainty in the problem. Monte Carlo simulations are used to the propagate uncertainty through the decision. The decision-making methods give designers greater insight when making long-term decisions regarding evolving technologies. The scenario of an automotive manufacturing firm entering the electric vehicle market deciding which battery technology to include in their new line of electric cars is used to demonstrate the decision-making method. Another scenario of a wind turbine energy company deciding which technology to invest in demonstrates a more sophisticated technology evolution modeling technique and the decision making under uncertainty method.Item Foraging decisions by eavesdropping bats(2014-05) Jones, Patricia LucileAnimals forage in complex environments in which they must constantly make decisions about which resources to approach and which to avoid. Many factors can influence these foraging decisions including perception and cognition. Predators that locate prey by eavesdropping on prey mating calls face a challenging foraging task because they must be able to identify which species-specific prey signals indicate palatable prey. My thesis investigates such foraging decisions in eavesdropping bats. The Neotropical fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, locates its frog and katydid prey by eavesdropping on the prey's calls. One of the prey of T. cirrhosus in Panamá is the túngara frog, Physalaemus pustulosus, that can make simple calls consisting of a "whine" alone, or complex calls which are a whine followed by 1-7 "chucks". In my first chapter I examine what components of frog calls bats use to identify and localize them. I assess how bats respond to the two components of the complex calls of P. pustulosus, and report that, unlike female frogs, bats respond to the chuck component alone but preferentially approach the whine. Next, I examine how response to prey cues is affected by prey availability by assessing the response of T. cirrhosus to geographically and seasonally variable prey. I find population and seasonal differences in response to some prey cues but not to other cues. Trachops cirrhosus can also learn novel prey cues from exposure to a conspecific tutor (social learning). My third chapter examines the conditions that influence when bats socially learn novel prey cues. I discover that bats are more likely to use social information to learn novel prey cues when the cue they are currently using to find food is unreliable. In my fourth and final chapter I address how eavesdropping can contribute to the evolution and diversification of bats by investigating the potential of eavesdropping on katydid calls for niche partitioning in two closely related bat species, the European greater and lesser mouse-eared bats, Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii oxygnathus. Together these studies highlight the role of cognition in foraging decisions and consider the consequences of eavesdropping for niche partitioning.Item The impact of principal leadership on supporting data inquiry(2010-05) Houlihan, Andrew Gray; Olivarez, Ruben; Gooden, Mark; Thompson, Sylvia; Cruz, Paul; Ward, MichaelRecent research surrounding educational leadership indicates that among school-related factors, leadership is second only to the classroom teacher as a variable associated with improving student achievement (Leithwood et al., 2004). Given the current climate of high stakes testing and accountability, the role that the principal plays in fostering continuous school improvement and ensuring academic success for all students has become increasingly important. To enhance school performance, the literature proposes that school leaders serve as instructional leaders and distribute their leadership responsibilities. One significant element of such leadership models is the ability of the school principal to support and promote inquiry by teachers and school administrators into student and school data. Wayman and Stringfield (2006) note that a campus culture that values and practices data-based decision making is marked by collaborative inquiry into student data. Advocates of data-driven decision making and data use suggest that inquiry into student data has been shown to be useful in improving overall school practice (Bernhardt, 2003; Wayman and Stringfield, 2006). Furthermore, using data to focus on specific goals will improve student learning (Schmoker, 1999). To explore how principals can foster the development of structures that allow for inquiry into student and school data, a case study of one purposely-selected high school was conducted. The four primary research questions this study addressed were: (1). What structures can high school principals develop and implement that promote inquiry by teachers and administrators into data? (2). What structures positively impact student academic achievement, as perceived by high school teachers and principals? (3). How are teachers using student achievement data in their instructional decision-making? (4). What are the qualitative data elements that school leaders might consider to inform the ongoing planning and decision-making process? Over the course of four months, data was gathered through individual interviews, observations, a survey, and analysis of pertinent documents. Several themes surrounding data analysis and leadership practices emerged. These included: the benefits of using structures to empower school staff to own data, the use of structures to allow for time for collaboration, using data to improve teaching practices, and the benefits of providing teachers greater access to pertinent data.Item Interactions between global and local performance incentives on decision-making and categorization(2010-08) Worthy, Darrell Andrew; Maddox, W. Todd; Markman, Arthur B.; Love, Bradley C.; Beer, Jennifer S.; Loewenstein, JeffreyRecent work has shown that the regulatory fit between global approach/avoidance goals and the local approach/avoidance mechanisms of goal pursuit influence cognition and behavior in predictable ways. A regulatory fit leads to an increase in motivation and engagement relative to a regulatory mismatch. The increase in engagement can lead to an increase in cognitive flexibility on cognitively demanding tasks. This work is composed of three inter-related studies that examine how the fit between global performance incentives and local mechanisms of goal pursuit influence decision-making and categorization. In Study 1 I examine how the interaction between global performance incentives and local goal pursuit mechanisms influences decision-making strategies in an experience-based decision-making paradigm. In this paradigm decision-making strategies can be classified as more exploratory or more exploitative. I find that participants in a regulatory fit would exhibit more exploratory decision-making patterns than participants in a regulatory mismatch. In Study 2 I examine how social pressure is related to approach and avoidance-based performance incentives using two types of category-learning tasks. I test the hypothesis that increasing performance pressure will induce an avoidance-based prevention focus which then interacts with the local mechanism of goal pursuit employed in the task (maximizing points gained or minimizing points lost). Participants either perform an explicit, rule-based category-learning task, or an implicit information-integration category-learning task. Behavioral and model-based analyses support the hypothesis that social pressure induces a prevention focus. When the pressure-induced prevention focus aligns with the local goal-pursuit mechanism participants perform better on the rule-based task, but worse on the information-integration task. Study 3 examines the effects of social pressure on categorization in highly-trained participants. Participants performed over 2500 training trials of either a rule-based or an information-integration category-learning task, and then performed another 640 trials after half received a manipulation designed to raise social pressure. Performance was worse on both the rule-based and information-integration task for participants who were under high social pressure compared to participants under low social pressure. The results from all three projects suggest that motivational incentives have a large effect on cognitively demanding tasks.Item Methodology for prototyping increased levels of automation for spacecraft rendezvous functions(2009-05-15) Hart, Jeremy JayThe Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) necessitates higher levels of automation than previous NASA vehicles due to program requirements for automation, including Automated Rendezvous and Docking (AR&D). Studies of spacecraft development often point to the locus of decision-making authority between humans and computers (i.e. automation) as a prime driver for cost, safety, and mission success. Therefore, a critical component in the CEV development is the determination of the correct level of automation. To identify the appropriate levels of automation and autonomy to design into a human space flight vehicle, NASA has created the Function-specific Level of Autonomy and Automation Tool (FLOAAT). This research develops a methodology for prototyping increased levels of automation for spacecraft rendezvous functions. This methodology was used to evaluate the accuracy of the FLOAAT-specified levels of automation, via prototyping. Two spacecraft rendezvous planning tasks were selected and then prototyped in Matlab using Fuzzy Logic (FL) techniques and existing Shuttle rendezvous trajectory algorithms. The prototyped functions are the determination of the maximum allowable Timeof- IGnition (TIG) slip for a rendezvous phasing burn and the evaluation of vehicle position relative to Transition initiation (Ti) position constraints. The methodology for prototyping rendezvous functions at higher levels of automation is judged to be a promising technique. The results of the prototype indicate that the FLOAAT recommended level of automation is reasonably accurate and that FL can be effectively used to model human decision-making used in spacecraft rendezvous. FL has many desirable attributes for modeling human decision-making, which makes it an excellent candidate for additional spaceflight automation applications. These conclusions are described in detail as well as recommendations for future improvements to the FLOAAT method and prototyped rendezvous functions.Item Participants and Information Outcomes in Planning Organizations(2012-10-19) Bierling, DavidThis research presents empirical evidence and interpretation about the effects of planning participants and contextual factors on information selection in public organizations. The study addresses important research questions and gaps in the literature about applicability of planning theory to practice, about effects of planning participants and participant diversity on information selection, and about community and organizational factors that influence information selection in the planning process. The research informs emergency planning, practice, and guidance, as well as planning theory and practice in general. The research sample consists of survey data from 183 local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) about their conduct of hazardous materials commodity flow studies (HMCFS), along with data from other secondary sources. HMCFS projects collect information about hazardous materials (HazMat) transport that can be used in a wide range of local emergency planning and community planning applications. This study takes the perspective that socio-cultural frameworks, such as organizational norms and values, influence information behaviors of planning participants. Controlling for organizational and community factors, the participation of community planners in HMCFS projects has a significant positive effect on selection of communicative information sources. Participation of HazMat responders in HMCFS projects does not have a significant negative effect on selection of communicative information sources. The diversity of HMCFS participants has a significant positive effect on information selection diversity. Other organizational and community factors, such as vicarious experience, 'know-how' and direct experience, financial resources, and knowledge/perception of hazards and risks are also important influences on information selection behavior. Results of this study are applicable to planning entities that are likely to use planning information: proactive LEPCs, planning agencies, and planning consortiums. The results are also applicable to community planners in local planning agencies and emergency responders in local emergency response agencies, and public planning organizations in general. In addition to providing evidence about the applicability of communicative rationality in planning practice, this research suggests that institutional/contextual, bounded, instrumental, and political rationalities may also in influence conduct of planning projects. Four corresponding prescriptive recommendations are made for planning theory and practice.Item Planning decision for vacant lots in the context of shrinking cities : a survey and comparison of practices in the United States(2014-08) Hollstein, Leah Marie; Shearer, Allan W.Planning theory and practice in the United States has been dominated by a paradigm of growth; however, since the 1980s, many cities have faced prolonged population decline, prompting questions about how shrinkage is engaged as planners attempt to provide for health, safety, and welfare. This investigation surveys and compares lines of thought being used to make decisions regarding these properties, with particular emphasis on planners located within cities having dissimilar experiences of “shrinking.” Principally, it is focused on vacant and abandoned lots, which are the most immediately visible symptom of population decline and offer the greatest opportunity to reimagine urban form-and-function relationships. The investigation begins with a literature review of the causes and effects of shrinking as well as an investigation into historical research and contemporary thought on vacant land in the United States. Current reasoning supporting decisions about vacant and abandoned lots is identified through a national survey of planning professionals in fifteen cities with either stable-to-growing or shrinking populations. These are augmented by selected follow-up interviews. Both stratified sampling and matching were used to achieve a range of city characteristics and control for them across growth orientation. This approach is new in that while case studies of one or two shrinking cities have been undertaken, there has not been a national survey focused on shrinking cities and vacancy. The goal is to understand regional trends, tools, and obstacles to progress. The results indicate a range in which methods and techniques predicated on the dominant and normative growth paradigm have been both adopted or adapted for use in shrinking cities. Results suggest that concepts regarding quality of life, intentions for the future, and community goals have been reprioritized and redefined in shrinking cities. Finally, results indicate ways in which ideas regarding the built environment and the discontinuities of the urban fabric are being reconceptualized in the face of massive economic and demographic upheaval.Item Prefrontal-based cognitive processing and exploratory behavior(2016-08) Blanco, Nathaniel Joseph; Gonzalez-Lima, Francisco, 1955-; Love, Bradley C.; Schnyer, David M.; Beevers, Christopher G.Exploration (performing actions to obtain information) is a critical cognitive function necessary for learning and decision-making. Effective decision-making requires finding the right balance between exploration and exploitation (taking action to obtain immediate reward). We can distinguish two types of learning and decision-making that differ crucially in how they approach exploratory behavior that are thought to be served by partially distinct neural systems. Reflexive decision-making is thought to be more habitual or automatic, computationally cheap, and mediated largely by processing in the striatum. Reflective decision-making is more goal-directed, relatively computationally expensive, depends on executive processing, and is thought to crucially depend on the prefrontal cortex. Reflective learning involves building a rich mental representation of the environment. This representation can allow the learner to use uncertainty in the environment to direct exploratory choices when they will be most valuable. To be most effective, one should explore when and where there is more uncertainty in the environment in order to gain more information to guide future choices. In contrast, reflexive strategies lead to “random” exploration. In a series of studies I examined the involvement of prefrontal cortex in reflective learning and the role of reflective processing in exploratory decision-making. In two studies, I investigated the contribution of prefrontal cortex to reflective and reflexive learning by examining the effects of prefrontal transcranial infrared laser stimulation on category learning. Reflective, but not reflexive, category learning was improved by laser stimulation. In three studies, I investigated factors influencing reflective and reflexive processing in exploratory decision-making. Study 3 found that greater levels of depression symptoms were associated with less frequent reflective strategy use. Study 4 found that genotype on a gene modulating prefrontal dopamine levels (COMT) was associated with reflective strategy use under cognitive load. Study 5 investigated reflective exploratory behavior in older (>60 years) and younger (<30 years) populations, finding that rather than a reflective processing deficit, older adults’ performance suffered (relative to younger adults) due to applying the wrong reflective strategy. These findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms of exploratory behavior and suggest a critical role for the prefrontal-based learning system.Item Qualitative descriptive study of Mexican Americans health-seeking experience during myocardial infarction(2013-12) Sanderson, Jennifer Dawn MaLyssa; Carter, Patricia A.Premature death due to cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, is higher in Hispanics (23.5%) than non-Hispanic White (16.5%) adults. Delaying treatment over 60 minutes increases the risk of sudden death by 50%. The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived benefits and barriers to seeking cardiac emergency care including emergency medical services (EMS) activation during an acute myocardial infarction (MI) in Mexican American adults. A qualitative descriptive design was used wherein semi-structured interviews and sociodemographic questionnaire were conducted with 12 Mexican Americans who had experienced an MI in the last two years. Qualitative conventional content analysis was used to uncover unique perceptions of Mexican Americans seeking emergency care. The overall theme that arose was degree of perceived threat leads to action. This theme was comprised five categories: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, and learned behavior. Perceived severity was closely intertwined with perceived susceptibility. Recent appointments with HCPs facilitated low perceived susceptibility to an MI and acted as a barrier leading to ix decreased initiation of emergency services for MI. Participants attempted self-treatment and evaluation which was a barrier to immediate emergency care. Perceived benefits to initiation of emergency care were using EMS to achieve rapid treatment of MI symptoms. Though several participants initially stated they would activate EMS, further inquiry revealed calling EMS was considered a last resort if the participant were alone. The findings suggest education of lay people and HCPs needs to emphasize that MIs can present in a variety of ways from slow-onset to fast-onset. A goal for nursing practice is to include regular screening on cardiac risk factors along with interventions and evaluation among patients and family. Future research should aim at finding the most successful format to provide public education to Mexican Americans on MI symptom and rapid initiation of EMS.Item Shared decision-making about breast reconstruction : a decision analysis approach(2013-12) Sun, Clement Sung-Jay; Markey, Mia Kathleen; Reece, GregoryAn ongoing objective in healthcare is the development of tools to improve patient decision-making and surgical outcomes for patients with breast cancer that have undergone or plan to undergo breast reconstruction. In keeping with the bioethical concept of autonomy, these decision models are patient-oriented and expansive, covering a range of different patient decision-makers. In pursuit of these goals, this dissertation contributes to the development of a prototype shared decision support system that will guide patients with breast cancer and their physicians in making decisions about breast reconstruction. This dissertation applies principles in decision analysis to breast reconstruction decision-making. In this dissertation, we examine three important areas of decision-making: (1) the options available to decision-makers, (2) the validity of probabilistic information assessed from reconstructive surgeons, and (3) the feasibility of applying multiattribute utility theory. In addition, it discusses the influences of breast aesthetics and proposes a measure for quantifying such influences. The dissertation concludes with a fictional case study that demonstrates the integration of the findings and application of decision analysis in patient-oriented shared breast reconstruction decision-making. Through the implementation of decision analysis principles, cognitive biases and emotion may be attenuated, clearing the decision-maker’s judgment, and ostensibly leading to good decisions. While good decisions cannot guarantee good outcomes at the individual level, they can be expected to improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer as a whole. And regardless of the outcome, good decisions yield clarity of action and grant the decision-maker a measure of peace in an otherwise uncertain world.Item Sign of contradiction? religious cultural heritage and the nuclear paradox of Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan(2013-08) Muzas, Brian Keenan; Gavin, Francis J.; Inboden, William, 1972-Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald W. Reagan embody a paradox. All three presidents made nuclear decisions ranging from hawkish and belligerent to dovish and restrained. How can such marked differences be explained? I argue that religious cultural heritage (RCH) can provide a parsimonious link which unifies the seemingly disparate nuclear choices of these presidents. I propose a theory to connect religious cultural heritage, decision-making frameworks, and nuclear choices. I apply this theory to Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan at the individual level of analysis. Since these three presidents were immersed in a Christian cultural milieu, I move beyond the simplistic treatment of religion as a proxy for morality to explore both Christian thought on war and the philosophical ethics, philosophy of government, and philosophy of human nature which underlie Christian thought. Using secondary and primary sources including archival research, I analyze each president and his nuclear decisions. Each presidential chapter presents the RCH of each president, pieces together each worldview, establishes patterns of thought and patterns of action, and analyzes a number of salient nuclear decisions ranging from choices in the midst of crises to programs for nuclear sharing and cooperation. In the final chapter I discuss and integrate my findings through the lenses of history and policy science, present avenues for future work, and draw policy lessons which can be applied today.Item Signal transformation and noise correlation in the primate dorsal stream during sensory decision-making(2016-05) Yates, Jacob Lachenmyer; Huk, Alexander C.; Pillow, Jonathan W.; Seidemann, Eyal; Priebe, Nicholas J; Johnston, Daniel; Geisler, Wilson SNeuroscientists have long sought a link between the activity of single neurons and our thoughts, perceptions and ultimately our mental experiences. As our senses provide the input into the brain, understanding the computations that transform signals along the sensory pathways has remained central to this endeavor. Remarkable progress has been made by studying neural correlates of perceptual decisions in motion-processing and oculomotor areas of the primate brain. In particular, when monkeys indicate their decisions about the direction of motion with eye movements, neurons in the middle temporal area (MT) represent the instantaneous motion evidence and neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) resemble the integration of motion evidence, effectively transforming the sensory signal into a decision variable. In the main body of this thesis, I describe the results of an effort to measure the sensorimotor transformation between MT and LIP on single trials. First, I describe a motion-discrimination task that is amenable to reverse correlation analysis, allowing the experimenter to measure the temporal dependencies of neural responses and choices on the instantaneous motion energy. I then use a unified statistical framework to analyze simultaneous recordings from both areas during decision-making. Primarily, I found that MT neurons exhibited time-varying sensitivity to motion direction, with important consequences for the behavior and neurophysiology in downstream areas. Individual LIP neurons also carried a signature of an integrated motion signal in their spike rates, however, it was unlikely that this signal results from direct MT input. Finally, I show that a biologically plausible simple decoder can perform as well as the monkey at coarse direction-discrimination task. In the appendix, I describe the results of pharmacological inactivations of MT and LIP and statistical models of single trial dynamics in LIP that were performed in collaboration with fellow graduate students, Leor Katz and Kenneth Latimer, respectively.Item The development and testing of a nonconsequentialist decision-making model(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Elaydi, Raed SaberNew conceptual work in the judgment and decision-making research arena has suggested a nonconsequentialist perspective to decision-making. From this perspective, an emphasis is placed on emotions during the decision-making process, specifically positing that concurrent emotions may lead to decisions that are nonconsequentialist in nature. In the current study I develop the Nonconsequentialist Decision-Making Model (NDMM) and include indecisiveness as a vital construct in the model. In tune with much new research on emotions during the decision-making process, I examine how being indecisive is a product of negative concurrent emotions, and how indecisiveness affects the decision-making process. Using a natural decision-making setting, the current study had participants discuss the "biggest" decision they are currently facing in their lives. Data was collected regarding indecisiveness, nonconsequentialist dysfunctional decisional coping behavior, and decision difficulty. The findings show strong support for the NDMM and the nonconsequentialist perspective. Furthermore, the indecisiveness construct was measured successfully and showed to be a critical part of the decision-making process when dealing with difficult decisions.