Tracking accumulation processes in memory decisions

Every day we need to remember whether we have seen people before and adjust our decisions accordingly. The goal of the proposed research is to further our understanding of decisions based on remembered information by following those as they happen in the brain. To be able to study neural decision dynamics, we use computational models of recognition memory that provide explicit mechanisms and hypotheses to be tested in neural data. We are particularly interested in the dynamics underlying the encoding, maintenance and retrieval of to-be-remembered information. How do the decision and memory networks interact dynamically to ensure good recognition memory performance? How optimal are our memory decisions? And how do reward and motivation play into our memory decisions? We will study how a memory decision comes into being and how it is influenced by what happened on earlier trials (i.e., adaptations in performance as a result of errors). The results of this project will have important implications for malfunctions of memory-based decision making in e.g., Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.