IRRATIONALITY LAB
How do people make decisions?
Human decisions exhibit "paradoxical" patterns –including biases and irrational preference reversals – that are barely understood in mechanistic terms. We harness these patterns in order to understand how the brain makes decisions across a variety of domains (e.g., perceptual, multiattribute, multialternative, risky).
Decisions entail complex information and engage multiple elusive cognitive and neural processes. We study human decisions using experimental techniques (such as cognitive psychophysics, pharmacological manipulations & MEG) that allow us to trace the flow of decision-related quantities, and the transformations they undergo, as decisions take shape. We combine experimental data with computational modelling to unveil the general principles governing human decisions. We like coming up with new decision-making models wherever possible.
Current focus
How are preferences shaped, maintained and altered in the human brain?
In the context of an ERC Consolidator grant, we will use MEG to decode snapshots of people's preferences from the way they sample decision-relevant information. This will enables us to map out the mechanisms and long-term dynamics of preference formation, perseverance and change.
