This was originally posted on blogger here.
I am currently developing a new course on the psychology of decision making that I will teach at Stanford in the Spring Quarter of 2016. I’ve looked at the various textbooks on this topic and I’m not particularly happy with any of them, so I am rolling my own syllabus and will use readings from the primary literature. I have developed a draft syllabus and would love to get feedback: Are there important topics that I am missing? Different readings that I should consider? Topics I should consider dropping? Please leave comments with your suggestions, or email me at poldrack@gmail.com!Part 1: What is a decision? 1. Varieties of decision making (overview of course)Part 2: Normative decision theory: How an optimal system should make decisions2. axiomatic approach from economics- TBD reading on expected utility theory3. Bayesian decision theoryKörding, K. P. (2007). Decision Theory: What “Should” the Nervous System Do? Science, 318(5850), 606–610. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.11429984. Information accumulationSmith & Ratcliff, 2004, Psychology and neurobiology of simple decisions. TINS.Part 3: Psychology: How humans make decisions5. Anomalies: the ascendence of psychology and behavioral economicsKahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on judgment and choice. American Psychologist,58, 697-7206. Judgment: Anchoring and adjustmentChapman, G.B. & Johnson, E.J. (2002). Incorporating the irrelevant: Anchors injudgment of belief and value7. Heuristics: availability, representativenessTversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases.Science, 185, 1124-1131. 8. Risk and uncertainty: Risk perception, risk attitudesSlovic, P. (1987). Perception of risk. Science, 236, 280-2859. Prospect theory Kahneman, D. & Tversky A. (1984). Choices, values, and frames. AmericanPsychologist, 39, 341–350.10. Framing, endowment effects, and applications of prospect theoryKahneman, D., Knetsch, J.L., & Thaler, R.H. (1991). The endowment effect, lossaversion, and status quo bias. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5, 193-206.11. Varieties of utilityKahneman, Wakker, & Sarin (1997). Back to Bentham: Explorations of experienced utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics.12. Intertemporal choice and self-controlMischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M.L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, pp. 933-938.13. Emotion and decision makingRottenstreich, Y. & Hsee, C.K. (2001). Money, kisses and electric shocks: On theaffective psychology of risk. Psychological Science, 12, 185-190.14. Social decision making and game theoryTBDPart 4: Neuroscience of decision making15. Neuroscience of simple decisionsSugrue, Corrado, & Newsome (2005). Choosing the greater of two goods: neural currencies for valuation and decision making. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.16. Neuroscience of Value-based decision makingRangel et al., 2008, A framework for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making17. Reinforcement learning and dopamine, wanting/likingSchultz, Montague, and Dayan (1997) A neural substrate of prediction and reward18. Decision making in simple organismsReading TBD (c. elegans, snails, slime mold, etc)possibilities:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10737805http://www.sciencemag.org/content/311/5767/1613.fullhttp://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1703/307Part 5: Ethical issues19. Free willRoskies (2006) Neuroscientific challenges to free will and responsibility.OR:Shadlen & Roskies (2012). The neurobiology of decision-making and responsibility: reconciling mechanism and mindedness.
3 comments captured from original post on Blogger
Unknown said on 2015-09-03
You might consider something on evidence accumulation - Ratcliffe 1978, Gold & Shadlen 2007
Christina said on 2015-09-30
2) We had a pretty good discussion on neuromarketing in our decision-making class (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20197790). Might fit into "ethics". Cheers from Berlin! Christina
Doctor Spurt said on 2015-12-14
You might find some interesting stuff in some old (late 1970s) Quantitative Ethology literature, in particular McFarland & Sibley’s "The Behavioural Final Common Path". (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/239416) And even if you don’t, ethology seems to be missing from your working outline.