Inga Jonaityte

The ability to learn from multiple competing cues and adapt decision strategies when the task environment changes is what differentiates between success and failure. Information structure affects the amount of effort required for acquiring information, assessing cue-outcome relationship, and developing decision-making strategies. In particular, the conflict between attending to valid cues versus salient cues affects how observers explore a task environment and make inferences about an underlying weight of each cue. In this study we focus on characteristics that define the environment - the salience and the validity of cues - and on the role they play in guiding probabilistic category learning. We hypothesize that the match (or mis-match) between cue salience and cue validity affect the ability to assess cue-outcome relationship and form decision-making strategies.

To test this hypothesis we conducted an online experiment and proposed a simple classification model that accounts for the participant behavior. The online experiment involved a sequence of incentivized binary decision-making tasks allowing us to measure the learning rate in different multi-dimensional environments. Across two treatments groups, we experimentally manipulated the weights assigned to visual cues with different level of salience. These weights (the actual validity of the cues) were initially unknown to the participants, hence, over the sequence of trials they had to learn which cue(s) and to what extent would have been the most important for stimuli discrimination. After analyzing the behavioral data from the online experiment, we proposed a linear classification model that simulates learning in a sequential binary forced choice task in a multi-dimensional environment. To manipulate the level of salience of the cues we introduced a bias signal into the learning algorithm. Simulation results illustrate that our model can predict closely the previously obtained behavioral data. This suggests that humans tend to favor the decision-making strategies that arise from focusing on a single yet the most salient cue when assessing cue-outcome relationship in a multiple-cue environments. The behavioral data analyses highlight the potential of improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying learning in an environment where competing cues vary in salience. The simulation results, on the other hand, suggest possible explanations for suboptimal behavioral strategies used by the human participants. We also describe possible extensions to our basic method. Finally, we discuss how the cue salience-validity trade-off might also explain other puzzles concerned with learning and point out some implications relevant not only in individual but also organizational context.

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations an...

This study explores decision-making processes of promoters of financial products and financial advice services. We collect experimental evidence about how these professionals perceive their customersO needs, preferences, and biases. By focusing on the behavioral differences between expert (621) and non-expert subjects (573) this study shows that expertise alone is not enough to prevent biased behavior. Our results suggest that even the most experienced and well-informed professionals exhibit systematic biases. We discuss how interpersonal cues used in financial communications may induce trust-related biases. This research provides useful insights for future in-depth research on how contextual factors, often non-informative, influence financial advisersO judgments and subsequent advice.

A fundamental question is how firms adapt to environments that present multiple dimensions. Generally, the number of dimensions may exceed the limits of human attention. Subsequently, as organizations try to adapt to such environments they may be constrained to consider only a few dimensions. In fact, selection of dimensions is a process that may be driven by multiple factors. Especially relevant are the validity, the predictive weight of dimensions, and the perceptual salience of features through which the competing dimensions are perceived. When these aspects diverge, their conflict will affect the learning process. In this paper, we explore how salience and validity interact in the process where agents have to learn to evaluate a stream of task inputs with the number of dimensions that overloads the average short-term memory capacity. We hypothesize that the interplay between the cue salience and the validity affects the ability to assess accurately the cue-outcome relationship, ...

The recent introduction of the European Commission’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) was intended to enhance assessment of consumers’ investment preferences, but it raises new challenges. The effectiveness of the MiFID as a tool to improve the relationships of investment service providers and their customers is questionable due to evident variability in implementation not only across most European countries but also across national financial institutions, as well. An inadequate questionnaire design induces mis-profiling of existing and potential clients, thus endangering the long-term relationships of financial institutions and their clients and affecting the future economic outcomes of the clientele, as well as the reputation of the company itself. To enhance our understanding of how best to assess investment preferences, with the goal of providing feasible solutions for improving MiFID questionnaires, we explored the relevant research on some important determina...