Magda Osman (Queen Mary University): What processes enable us to control uncertainty?

Thursday, 7 May, 2:00, LAK 2.06

Magda Osman (Queen Mary University) What processes enable us to control uncertainty?

ABSTRACT: The presentation will start with a round trip of psychological research in the domain of dynamic control. For the most part the literature has focused heavily, and unnecessarily, on weak empirical demonstrations of unconscious processes that are thought to underpin control behaviours that are recruited to manage uncertain situations. The presentation will then go on to discuss the latest advances in the field. This work suggest that the way we are able to exert control in situations in which information is highly impoverished is when we: (1) can assert a sense of agency over our circumstances, and (2) when we identify signals in the environment that we judge to be reliable indicators of past performance (e.g., reward information), that can, in turn, be used to determine desirable future outcomes.