Cognitive models of decision making in clinical populations

This project is in the field of cognitive science. The goal is to develop and apply hierarchical Bayesian methods to formal models of decision making. Decision models allow the study of individual differences in cognitive and motivational processes of decision makers. The project's specific aims include development and implementation of hierarchical Bayesian methods for comparing alternate decision models, parameter estimation, and tests of generalisation across decision tasks. These methods will be implemented in a decision making study of people with substance use problems. This research will yield new methods and a rigorous, theoretically-based account of how substance users differ from comparison subjects in their decision behaviour.