Related papers: Perceptual decision making: Biases in post-error r…

This thesis considers sequential decision problems, where the loss/reward incurred by selecting an action may not be inferred from observed feedback. A major part of this thesis focuses on the unsupervised sequential selection problem,…

As data-driven methods are deployed in real-world settings, the processes that generate the observed data will often react to the decisions of the learner. For example, a data source may have some incentive for the algorithm to provide a…

Biological systems operate under persistent noise, which can alter system states and induce transitions between attractors. Here, we study the attractor dynamics of Boolean networks focusing on the transitions between attractors induced by…

Models for cross-sectional network data have become increasingly well-developed in recent decades, and are widely used. This has led to a growing interest in the connection between such cross-sectional models and the behavioral processes…

An adaptive design adjusts dynamically as information is accrued and a consequence of applying an adaptive design is the potential for inducing small-sample bias in estimates. In psychometrics and psychophysics, a common class of studies…

We present new applications of parity inversion and time-reversal to the emergence of complex behavior from simple dynamical rules in stochastic discrete models. Our parity-based encoding of causal relationships and time-reversal…

Bayesian inference has theoretical attractions as a principled framework for reasoning about beliefs. However, the motivations of Bayesian inference which claim it to be the only 'rational' kind of reasoning do not apply in practice. They…

We observe that the human trajectory is not only forward predictable, but also backward predictable. Both forward and backward trajectories follow the same social norms and obey the same physical constraints with the only difference in…

Optimizing recommender systems based on user interaction data is mainly seen as a problem of dealing with selection bias, where most existing work assumes that interactions from different users are independent. However, it has been shown…

Navigation is crucial for animal behavior and is assumed to require an internal representation of the external environment, termed a cognitive map. The precise form of this representation is often considered to be a metric representation of…

We study a repeated information design setting in which the receiver, who is also the decision-maker, updates beliefs in a systematically biased way. More specifically, a distorted posterior in our model can be written as a convex…

Selection bias arises when the probability that an observation enters a dataset depends on variables related to the quantities of interest, leading to systematic distortions in estimation and uncertainty quantification. For example, in…

Living systems, from single cells to higher vertebrates, receive a continuous stream of non-stationary inputs that they sense, e.g., via cell surface receptors or sensory organs. Integrating these time-varying, multi-sensory, and often…

We study a nonlinear dynamics of binary opinions in a population of agents connected by a directed network, influenced by two competing forces. On the one hand, agents are stubborn, i.e., have a tendency for one of the two opinions; on the…

This thesis considers sequential decision problems, where the loss/reward incurred by selecting an action may not be inferred from observed feedback. A major part of this thesis focuses on the unsupervised sequential selection problem,…

In this paper we consider the modeling of opinion dynamics over time dependent large scale networks. A kinetic description of the agents' distribution over the evolving network is considered which combines an opinion update based on binary…

Convenient access to observational data enables us to learn causal effects without randomized experiments. This research direction draws increasing attention in research areas such as economics, healthcare, and education. For example, we…

Organisms and ecological groups accumulate evidence to make decisions. Classic experiments and theoretical studies have explored this process when the correct choice is fixed during each trial. However, we live in a constantly changing…

Perceptual judgments of sequential stimuli are systematically biased by prior expectations and by the temporal structure of sensory input. In haptic discrimination tasks, these effects often manifest as time-order asymmetries, whereby the…

I hypothesize that re-occurring prior experience of complex systems mobilizes a fast response, whose attractor is encoded by their strongly connected network core. In contrast, responses to novel stimuli are often slow and require the…