{"pk":25397,"title":"Cognition in reach: continuous statistical inference\nin optimal motor planning","subtitle":null,"abstract":"We study the projection of cognitive representations into\ncontinuous motor (reaching) responses with a computational\nmodel that unifies three influential approaches: accumulation\nof evidence, statistical inference, and optimal\nfeedback control. We modeled a number comparison task\nthat asked participants to respond with a reaching gesture\nwhich of two side had more dots. The model successfully\nreproduced subjects’ pattern of reach and performance\nacross varying difficulties of numerical comparison.\nOur model parameterized several potentially relevant\ncognitive variables, including a threshold, memory decay,\nand mental sampling rate. Remarkably, a threshold for\nmovement was not needed for modeling human behavior\nwhen statistical inference is combined with optimal motor\nplanning. Overall, the model indicates that the motorsystem\npositions the effectors optimally, both biomechanically\nthrough an optimal feedback controller, and cognitively\nby means of continuous statistical inference on the\navailable evidence.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Number Cognition; Threshold; Bayesian; Optimality;\nContinuous Responses"}],"section":"Papers","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4x88b75n","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Santiago","middle_name":"","last_name":"Alonso-Diaz","name_suffix":"","institution":"Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester","department":""},{"first_name":"Jessica","middle_name":"F","last_name":"Cantlon","name_suffix":"","institution":"Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester","department":""},{"first_name":"Steven","middle_name":"T","last_name":"Piantadosi","name_suffix":"","institution":"Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2015-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/25397/galley/15021/download/"}]}