Think of a recent experience you had while buying a t-shirt at the store. If it was a tough decision, you probably remember comparing the shirt to other options. You may even remember looking back and forth between the options while you decided which one to buy. This looking behavior is linked to attention, which shifts between the options you’re considering. Research has shown that attention can actually influence which item you will choose, and we have developed mathematical models that can show just how much each person is influenced by attention when making their decisions. Our model says that during the decision process you accumulate evidence in favor of one option or the other until hitting a fixed boundary. When looking at an item you accumulate more evidence for it than you would otherwise. The stronger this boost in evidence, the more influenced by attention you are in your choices. What this means is that items that hold your attention longer are more likely to be chosen.
In this project, you will track your own eye movements while you make decisions between snack foods, using an eye tracker. The eye tracker uses infrared light reflected off of the pupil and recorded by a camera to determine where you are looking on the computer screen at each moment in time. Using this data, the choices you made, and your decision times, you will fit the model to your choices to see how well we can explain your behavior and how influenced by attention you are.
This project is designed for both experienced and inexperienced programmers. OSU Psychology & Economics professor Ian Krajbich, who developed the model, and one of his graduate students, will be present to help with running the experiment, any programming questions, fitting the model, and visualizing the results.
