All the decisions we make, come with a certain amount of confidence. Confidence allows us to monitor and judge the quality of our decisions, or even to change our behaviour. For example, consider driving in a car. When determining the optimal moment to brake, we usually estimate not only the distance to the vehicle in front of us, but also our level of confidence in this estimate. When less confident, we often decide to hit the brake a bit sooner – such as when driving at night or in foggy conditions. This also extends to other examples, including medical professionals interpreting radiological images. Humans have impressive abilities in making such estimations.
Through the development of several computer algorithms and testing experimental predictions, Jehee and her team have successfully measured and quantified people’s confidence in their decisions. Jehee and other world-renowned experts in decision neuroscience were recently awarded the esteemed Doctoral Networks Award to continue this line of work. The network features multiple partners from across Europe.
Bridging the gap for real world applications
The team will collaborate on studies of decision confidence and explore its practical applications in society. Jehee highlights, "This research ultimately aims to bridge the gap between fundamental scientific knowledge and real-world applications. For instance, we not only focus on improving our basic knowledge of decision confidence in the lab, but also aim to investigate how confidence-related processes operate in real-world situations.
We plan to study, for example, how confidence affects the academic achievements of children. We will also study decision confidence in adults, including those affected by dementia, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and we will study industrial applications of decision confidence. The potential applications of this research are extensive. The project is scheduled to commence in early 2024, with a total of 10 PhD positions distributed among the collaborating partners.