People who think about a situation often make mistakes – and make wrong decisions. However, brain researchers believe that unconscious decision-making processes are usually optimal.
Unconscious decisions are made much more accurately and rationally than conscious considerations. Neuroscientists from the University of Rochester in New York State discovered this. The reliability of decisions is even compromised by knowingly absorbed information, write Alex Pouget and colleagues in the current issue of the magazine”neuron‘.
Pouget has been studying the precision of unconscious decision-making for years, considering previous assumptions insufficient. Back in 1979, neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky They argued that making decisions of the human brain is only rarely rational. This work, awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002, has since been accepted as a generally accepted doctrine.
The best possible logical decision
Pouget believes that the brain usually makes the best possible logical decisions – at least when the subconscious can make decisions. The brain actually makes most of our decisions subconsciously, says the neuroscientist, criticizing the fact that previous research focused primarily on conscious decisions.
Using a very simple but effective design, Pouget and colleagues watched the brain make decisions. Dots are shown on the computer screen randomly moving in different directions. However, some dots are deliberately moving left or right. Respondents were asked to assess the direction of the dots.
using the same experimental setting, Michael Shadlen from the University of Washington conducted experiments at the neural level. He observed a pair of neurons that react to left or right movements. During the test, neurons were more often activated. When a certain threshold is reached, the brain formed a response to the direction of movement. Pouget and his colleagues have included these results in their theory and now have a more accurate understanding of how decision-making works at the neural level.
The accuracy thresholds vary
The brain does not ‘wait’ until there is complete security; makes decisions based on probability. According to Pouget, this has several advantages. The most important thing is that a reasonable decision can be made in a reasonable time frame. Decision making is thus maximally optimized in terms of time and probability.
Another advantage is knowing the accuracy of the decision: based on unconsciously collected information, we can estimate the percentage of probability that the decision is correct. The percentage thresholds for the correctness of the decision vary depending on the circumstances of the decision. Pouget wants to explore how these percentage markers work in further experiments.
Suddenly the real answer
The subjects had a pretty good hit rate without much thought. The correct answer suddenly appeared – without any knowledge of very complex calculations. In the next experiment, the respondents were given a percentage of optimal solutions.
Cover photo: Photo by Ecliptic Graphic he unsplash
