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Visual attention modulates the integration of goal-relevant evidence and not value

View ORCID ProfilePradyumna Sepulveda, View ORCID ProfileMarius Usher, View ORCID ProfileNed Davies, View ORCID ProfileAmy Benson, View ORCID ProfilePietro Ortoleva, View ORCID ProfileBenedetto De Martino
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.14.031971
Pradyumna Sepulveda
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: p.sepulveda@ucl.ac.uk benedettodemartino@gmail.com
Marius Usher
2School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Ned Davies
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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Amy Benson
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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Pietro Ortoleva
3Department of Economics and Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
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Benedetto De Martino
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
4Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: p.sepulveda@ucl.ac.uk benedettodemartino@gmail.com
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Abstract

When choosing between options, such as food items presented in plain view, people tend to choose the option they spend longer looking at. The prevailing interpretation is that visual attention increases value. However, in previous studies, ‘value’ was coupled to a behavioural goal, since subjects had to choose the item they preferred. This makes it impossible to discern if visual attention has an effect on value, or, instead, if attention modulates the information most relevant for the goal of the decision-maker. Here we present the results of two independent studies—a perceptual and a value-based task—that allow us to decouple value from goal-relevant information using specific task-framing. Combining psychophysics with computational modelling, we show that, contrary to the current interpretation, attention does not boost value, but instead it modulates goal-relevant information. This work provides a novel and more general mechanism by which attention interacts with choice.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 14, 2020.
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Visual attention modulates the integration of goal-relevant evidence and not value
Pradyumna Sepulveda, Marius Usher, Ned Davies, Amy Benson, Pietro Ortoleva, Benedetto De Martino
bioRxiv 2020.04.14.031971; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.14.031971
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Visual attention modulates the integration of goal-relevant evidence and not value
Pradyumna Sepulveda, Marius Usher, Ned Davies, Amy Benson, Pietro Ortoleva, Benedetto De Martino
bioRxiv 2020.04.14.031971; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.14.031971

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