Degenerate boundaries for multiple-alternative decisions

Sophie-Anne Baker, Thom Griffith and Nathan F. Lepora ()
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Sophie-Anne Baker: University of Bristol
Thom Griffith: University of Bristol
Nathan F. Lepora: University of Bristol

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Integration-to-threshold models of two-choice perceptual decision making have guided our understanding of human and animal behavior and neural processing. Although such models seem to extend naturally to multiple-choice decision making, consensus on a normative framework has yet to emerge, and hence the implications of threshold characteristics for multiple choices have only been partially explored. Here we consider sequential Bayesian inference and a conceptualisation of decision making as a particle diffusing in n-dimensions. We show by simulation that, within a parameterised subset of time-independent boundaries, the optimal decision boundaries comprise a degenerate family of nonlinear structures that jointly depend on the state of multiple accumulators and speed-accuracy trade-offs. This degeneracy is contrary to current 2-choice results where there is a single optimal threshold. Such boundaries support both stationary and collapsing thresholds as optimal strategies for decision-making, both of which result from stationary representations of nonlinear boundaries. Our findings point towards a normative theory of multiple-choice decision making, provide a characterisation of optimal decision thresholds under this framework, and inform the debate between stationary and dynamic decision boundaries for optimal decision making.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32741-y

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