Adaptive decision making, ecological validity, and the frontal lobes. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Existing neuropsychological procedures assess veridical, but not adaptive, decision making, which are based on different mechanisms. This severely curtails the tests' ecological validity, because most real-life decision making situations are adaptive, rather than veridical. Veridical decision making entails finding the correct response intrinsic to external situations and is actor-independent. Adaptive decision making is actor-centered and priority-based. Prefrontal cortex is critical for adaptive decision making. Innovative actor-centered decision-making tasks are required to better understand frontal lobe functions. We have designed a prototype for such procedures, the Cognitive Bias Task (CBT). CBT elicited strong gender and hemispheric differences in the effects of focal frontal lesions, which are more robust than those elicited with veridical tasks, such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

publication date

  • February 1, 2000

Research

keywords

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Decision Making
  • Frontal Lobe
  • Social Environment

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0034048582

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1076/1380-3395(200002)22:1;1-8;FT056

PubMed ID

  • 10649545

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 22

issue

  • 1