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

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information
Metrics

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.

Data availability

Data and the codes used for this study have been deposited at the Brain Decision Modelling Lab GitHub (https://github.com/BDMLab).

The following data sets were generated

1. Sepulveda
2. Usher
3. Davies
4. Benson
5. Ortoleva
6. De Martino
(2020) Sepulveda_et_al_2020
GitHub repository, BDM lab Sepulveda_et_al_2020.

https://github.com/BDMLab/Sepulveda_et_al_2020

Article and author information

Author details

Pradyumna Sepulveda

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
p.sepulveda@ucl.ac.uk

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0159-6777
Marius Usher

School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8041-9060
Ned Davies

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Amy A Benson

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8239-5266
Pietro Ortoleva

Department of Economics and Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Benedetto De Martino

Institute Cognitive of Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
benedettodemartino@gmail.com

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (Graduate student scholarship - DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2017 - 72180193)

Pradyumna Sepulveda

Wellcome Trust (Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (102612 /A/13/Z))

Benedetto De Martino

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants signed a consent form and both studies were done following the approval given by the University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences ethics committee (project ID number 1825/003).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.