Articles tagged with "decision_making"

01/26/2013 18:47:21
For Love or Money: Marriage and Economic Development in the Past
Douglas Smith
Getting married and moving out of your parents' house may be key to your personal economic development, but are marriage patterns key to an entire society's development as well? Professor of Social Science History Tracy Dennison tells us what love's got to do with it at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Admission is free.
09/10/2009 18:00:00
Caltech Scientists Develop Novel Use of Neurotechnology to Solve Classic Social Problem
Lori Oliwenstein

Economists and neuroscientists from Caltech have shown that they can use information obtained through fMRI measurements of whole-brain activity to create feasible, efficient, and fair solutions to one of the stickiest dilemmas in economics, the public goods free-rider problem—long thought to be unsolvable. This is one of the first-ever applications of neurotechnology to real-life economic problems, the researchers note.

04/30/2009 07:00:00
Caltech Researchers Pinpoint the Mechanisms of Self-Control in the Brain
Lori Oliwenstein

When you're on a diet, deciding to skip your favorite calorie-laden foods and eat something healthier takes a whole lot of self-control--an ability that seems to come easier to some of us than others. Now, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered differences in the brains of people who are able to exercise self-control versus those who find it almost impossible. 

03/05/2009 08:00:00
Markets Are Better Than Patents in Promoting Discovery, Says Caltech Economists
Lori Oliwenstein

When it comes to intellectual curiosity and creativity, a market economy in which inventors can buy and sell shares of the key components of their discoveries actually beats out the winner-takes-all world of patent rights as a motivating force, according to a California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers.

02/15/2009 08:00:00
Caltech's Colin Camerer Makes a Game of Economic Theory
Lori Oliwenstein

"Economics is the field that has used game theory the most broadly to understand bargaining, pricing, firm competition, incentive contracts, and more," explains Camerer, who is the Robert Kirby Pr

05/19/2008 07:00:00
Caltech Researchers Reveal the Neuronal Computations Governing Strategic Social Interactions in the Human Brain
Kathy Svitil
In a strategic game, the success of any player depends not just on his or her own actions, but on the behavior of every other player in the game. To be successful, players must not only pay attention to what other players do, but also how they are thinking.
 
05/08/2008 07:00:00
How Fairness Is Wired in the Brain
elisabeth nadin
In the biblical story in which two women bring a baby to King Solomon, both claiming to be the mother, he suggests dividing the child so that each woman can have half. Solomon's proposed solution, meant to reveal the real mother, also illustrates an issue central to economics and moral philosophy: how to distribute goods fairly.
04/16/2008 07:00:00
Locating a "Free Choice" Brain Circuit
elisabeth nadin
Your brain gets a better workout when you change your routine, say scientists at the California Institute of Technology who have pinpointed one particular circuit that activates your ability to execute a decision. This finding may help drive research in neural prosthetics and in how unhealthy decisions are made.
 
03/25/2008 07:00:00
Fly Flight Simulators Reveal Secrets of Decision Making
Kathy Svitil
Even flies like video games--and it's not just child's play, say scientists at the California Institute of Technology. With the help of a unique bug-sized flight simulator, Caltech researchers are deciphering the secrets of behavior and decision making in the fly brain, and, ultimately, in our own.
 
02/12/2008 08:00:00
Pupil Dilation Marks Decision Making
Kathy Svitil
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the simple pupil--the circular opening at the center of the eye that contracts and dilates to regulate the amount of light the eye receives--offers a remarkable portal to the inner workings of the brain. Such is the conclusion of neurobiologist Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues, who have found that changes in pupil diameter correspond to the moment when a simple decision is made.
 
01/14/2008 08:00:00
Wine Study Shows Price Influences Perception
Kathy Svitil
A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but slap on a hefty price tag, and our opinion of it might go through the roof. At least that's the case with the taste of wine, say scientists from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
 
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