{"pk":21446,"title":"Optimal decision-making under task uncertainty: a computational basis for cognitive stability versus flexibility","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Cognitive control is thought to regulate the conflict between stability---maintaining the current task in the face of distraction---and flexibility---switching to a new task of greater priority. However, evidence conflicts regarding when and to what extent stability and flexibility trade-off. A normative theory of flexibility and stability may help clarify when and why we should expect such trade-offs to occur. Towards such a theory, we model task-switching as a problem of decision-making under uncertainty, in which the decision-maker must simultaneously infer both the identity of a stimulus and the task governing the correct response to that stimulus. We find that optimal behavior is either extremely stable or extremely flexible, but not both, indicating a normative basis for a trade-off between the two. However, we also show that a sub-optimal but more realistic decision-maker exhibits behavior between these two extremes, and more closely resembles experimental data.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Cognitive Neuroscience; Attention; Decision making; Computational Modeling"}],"section":"Papers with Oral Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2d40418r","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Seth","middle_name":"","last_name":"Madlon-Kay","name_suffix":"","institution":"Duke University","department":""},{"first_name":"John","middle_name":"","last_name":"Pearson","name_suffix":"","institution":"Duke University","department":""},{"first_name":"Tobias","middle_name":"","last_name":"Egner","name_suffix":"","institution":"Duke University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/21446/galley/11045/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/21446/galley/21891/download/"}]}