Perceptual Decision-Making Under Uncertainty Incentivized by Economic Value.

In previous studies, perceptual and economic decision-making have been differentiated both in terms of their integration pathways in the brain and behavioural decision-making patterns. This study brings together perceptual and economic tasks while incorporating two scenarios of uncertainty, namely, risk and ambiguity. The results confirm previous research in the field and points out to different underlying mechanisms between two decision-making paradigms demonstrated by significantly faster decision-making when endowed with economic information. Participants also adopted a faster response strategy under ambiguity over known risk conditions. Moreover, the study provides a measure of task-belief and shows that higher confidence in task-belief leads to significantly faster decisions, even more so under economic incentives. The results hint at a perceptual preference in humans towards location change rather than frequency change. These findings support that humans’ confidence in their decisions is significantly motivated by monetary incentives, their response strategy changes under known versus unknown probabilities of outcomes, and that perceptual and economic decision-making are manifested through different behavioural patterns.