Workshop on Modeling of Attention in Decision Making

时间：2021年7月12日星期一

地点：浙江大学经济学院530

Welcoming Remarks by Zhang Junsen(Dean of School of Economics of Zhejiang University)：10:00-10:10

Morning Section: 10:10—11:40

Topic:  Attention Utility: Theory and Evidence

Speaker:Chew Soo Hong（Southwestern University of Finance and Economics）

Abstract：We offer an attention utility model for decision making under risk and uncertainty from the perspective of our mind as a cognitive miser. For uniform finite lotteries, our axiomatization delivers attention-dependent decision weights which resemble the divisive normalization form in the predictive brain literature and can accommodate behavior often associated with consequentialist choice under high attentiveness. In addition to the commonly discussed Allais paradoxes and attitude towards four-fold risks, the model can account for recent evidence on the continuity of decision weights from probability weighting and the asymmetric loss-gain arousal response being linked to aversion towards even-chance mixed risk around the status quo. The descriptive validity of our model is further demonstrated in terms of how it can account for a rich range of choice anomalies with shared roots in the volatile nature of the attentional process. These anomalies include the discontinuity in certainty equivalent from event splitting, disjunction effect, uncertainty effects, and source preference encompassing ambiguity aversion and familiarity bias. Under low attentiveness, in contrast with random utility, attention utility yields an alternative account of stochastic choice.

报告人简介：周恕弘（Chew Soo Hong），现任西南财经大学和新加坡国立大学教授，现为国际计量经济学会会士，是行为经济学和实验经济学的国际领军人物。他于1981年毕业于不列颠哥伦比亚大学。在 Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of European Economic Association, Journal of Economic Theory, Management Science, International Economic Review等经济学国际顶尖期刊发表50余篇学术论文。

Afternoon Section: 14:00—15:30

Topic: Modeling the Role of Attention in Decision Making using Neurochemistry

Speaker:Richard Paul Ebstein （Southwestern University of Finance and Economics）

Abstract: Building on the attention utility (AU) model proposed in Chew, Wang, and Zhong (2021) for decision making under risk and uncertainty, we offer a neurochemical model of attention and its role in decision making through a triad of neurotransmitters – dopamine (DA), serotonin (5HT), and norepinephrine (NE) – which modulate respectively gain, loss, and attention processing. Building on Zhong et al.’s (2009) application of DA and 5HT tones to model the loss-gain differentiation in risk attitude, we propose an NE tone, comprising the elements of the attention information messenger system concentrated in the locus coeruleus (LC), as a modulator of the attention function in AU. The LC-NE system facilitates switching between two primary modes of attentiveness: an exploitative mode which is engaged and focused versus an exploratory mode which is disengaged and unfocused. Correspondingly, the NE neuron switches between a rapid firing phasic exploitative mode involving higher energy expenditures and a slow-firing tonic mode with lower energy expenditures. We link NE phasic and tonic firing to properties of the attention function and derive testable implications linking the decision maker’s genetic makeup, LC brain activation, skin conductance response (SCR), and eye movement to observable choice behavior. Notably, attentional loss aversion in the attention function is supported by evidence linking asymmetric loss-gain SCR and behavioral loss aversion, i.e., aversion to symmetric risks around the status quo. We further discuss how to test the prediction of our model on the impact of NE tone on the fourfold pattern of risk attitude – an elevated level of caffeine/nicotine reduces aversion (tolerance) for even-chance gain (loss) and increases preference (aversion) for longshot gain (loss). Taken together, our LC-NE model of attention in decision making, involving an active interplay between phasic and tonic modes at the neuronal level, offers an neurobiological account of the cognitive miser underpinning the AU model.  

报告人简介：Richard Paul Ebstein，现任西南财经大学中国行为经济与金融中心特聘教授, 之前是新加坡国立大学教授。他于1968年毕业于耶鲁大学。Richard Paul Ebstein教授是神经基因科学方面的杰出专家，是首位将遗传学引入到实验经济学的科学家。他在行为和生物经济学研究领域享有很高的国际影响力，包括在Nature，Nature Genetics，Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Neuron, Behavioral and Brain Science等国际顶尖期刊发表大量学术论文，其中在Nature和PNAS这两本科学期刊发表了5篇论文。