CCS News

CCS Member research

CCS affiliate Kathleen Vohs' research was featured in the March 2009 LA Times story “Too many choices can tax the brain, research shows".

 

Christopoulos and Schrater paper in PLOS Computational Biology

On September 3rd, PLOS Computational Biology accepted a paper by CCS members Vasileios Christopoulos (Brain Sciences Center) and Paul Schrater (Psychology & Computer Science) entitled, "Grasping objects with environmentally induced position uncertainty".

Summary
     Optimal sensorimotor control models actions as decisions that maximize the desirableness of outcomes, where the desirableness is captured by an expected cost or utility to each action sequence. These models provide explanations for many aspects of our ability to compensate for uncertainty, but they have not been applied to understanding purposive movements – movements involving the application of forces to change the relative position of objects and the actor in the environment. Using time efficiency as a natural cost function, we present a statistical optimal control analysis of uncertainty compensation strategies in a purposive movement task, grasping an object with directional position uncertainty. In accord with the predictions of the analysis, the experimental results showed that people compensate for uncertainty by adopting grasp strategies that increase the chance to produce a stable grasp at first contact. Our findings suggest that visuomotor system plans for uncertainty even in complex purposive movements.

Information and Decision Sciences 8721: Behavioural Decision Theory (2 credits)*
Spring-B, 2010 (March 22-May 7, 2010)

Instructor: Shawn P. Curley, Professor
Department of Information & Decision Sciences
curley@umn.edu
Class Times: Mon Wed 3:45 - 5:25 pm
Room: 1-142 csom

Course Description