Joint modeling of choices and reaction times based on Bayesian contextual behavioral control

Abstract

In cognitive neuroscience and psychology, reaction times are an important behavioral measure. However, in instrumental learning and goal-directed decision making experiments, findings often rely only on choice probabilities from a value-based model, instead of reaction times. Recent advancements have shown that it is possible to connect value-based decision models with reaction time models. However, typically these models do not provide an integrated account of both value-based choices and reaction times, but simply link two types of models. Here, we propose a novel integrative joint model of both choices and reaction times by combining a mechanistic account of Bayesian sequential decision making with a sampling procedure. This allows us to describe how internal uncertainty in the planning process shapes reaction time distributions. Specifically, we use a recent context-specific Bayesian forward planning model which we extend by a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler to obtain both choices and reaction times. As we will show this makes the sampler an integral part of the decision making process and enables us to reproduce, using simulations, well-known experimental findings in value based-decision making as well as classical inhibition and switching tasks. Specifically, we use the proposed model to explain both choice behavior and reaction times in instrumental learning and automatized behavior, in the Eriksen flanker task and in task switching. These findings show that the proposed joint behavioral model may describe common underlying processes in these different decision making paradigms. Author summaryMany influential results in psychology and cognitive neuroscience rest on reaction time effects in behavioral experiments, for example in studies about human decision making. For decisions that rest on planning, findings often rely on analyses using specific computational models. Until recently, these models did not allow for analysis of reaction times. In this article we introduce a new model of how to explain both choices and reaction times in decision making experiments that involve planning. Importantly, the model explains how the brain can make good decisions quickly, even in the face of many potential choices and in complex environments.