Cognitive flexibility involves the adaptive change of behaviour in response to changes in environmental contingencies. However, human decision makers in volatile environments make errors that prevent the maximisation of utility. This project aims to investigate the kinds of errors in decision making in a reversal learning task.
Department: Psychology
Supervised by: Dr Anastasia Christakou
Reversal learning tasks are used by cognitive scientists to probe cognitive flexibility in decision making. Reversal tasks involve learning the outcome probabilities of alternative options, for instance choosing to pick a card from one of several decks in order to collect points. With experience participants are more accurately able to discriminate between ‘better’ or ‘worse’ choices. However, when the probabilities of choices are reversed, (i.e ‘better’ choices become 'worse’ and vice versa) errors in decision making occur and can be measured. For instance, perseverative errors involve the continued selection of a choice that was ‘better’ before the reversal, but is now ‘worse’. Meanwhile, regressive errors occur after one has learned the new rules, when they occasionally return to the option that was ‘better’ before the reversal. Prospect Theory describes how, under risk and uncertainty in decision making, humans attribute greater subjective value to losses over gains. However, the impact of risk aversion on human decision-making during reversal learning is not fully understood. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate perseverative and regressive errors during reversal learning involving the pursuit of reward versus the avoidance of loss. The student will be responsible for their own experiment under the supervision of Dr Anastasia Christakou and Brendan Williams (PhD researcher and previous UROP recipient) in the School of Psychology and Clinical Languages. Their work will complement Brendan’s PhD work and contribute more broadly to the decision-making work in the lab. During their placement the student will be involved in the full research process including hypothesis generation, experimental design, participant recruitment, data collection and analysis.
The student will be involved in: the review of relevant literature; generation of specific hypothesis; design of the experiment; recruitment of participants; running the experiment; analysing data and the presentation of results. There will also be the opportunity to observe some of the neuroimaging work going on within the lab and attend weekly seminars in the neuroimaging facility. The student will also be involved in the production of a manuscript for publication if they wish. As part of the student's induction on day 1, the supervisors and student will agree a structured plan for the placement, with specific targets set for each week.
The student is expected to have the basic knowledge and understanding resulting from the two years of study as a psychology, life sciences or economics undergraduate: experimental design and methods; ethical issues in research; numeracy and statistics; experience of Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. The student should also show an interest in the background and the goals of the project, have the appropriate time-management and communication skills necessary to interact with adult research volunteers and research group members.
The placement will help the student to develop their understanding of the research environment and application of the scientific method. This will help students to prepare for their empirical third year project, and will allow them to develop thinking that will be useful post-graduation in a research or professional environment. During the placement the student will have the opportunity to acquire research skills not typically available during a typical undergraduate degree, e.g. the opportunity to code software and data analysis, and the opportunity to co-author a scientific paper.
School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences / Centre for Integrative Neurosciences and Neurodynamics
Full time or part time
Saturday 01 June 2019 - Saturday 31 August 2019
The post will be advertised centrally on the UROP website between 25th February and 5th April 2019. Students should submit their CV (maximum 1 page, including relevant study, research, and employment info, and key skills), and a 250 word personal statement about their goals and career plans, explaining their motivation and how their skills and experience match those required for the placement, along with any further information that they feel is necessary. Applicants should submit their applications directly to the Project Supervisors (click on supervisor name at the top of the page for email). Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview.