[[Decision-Making]] is the cognitive process of selecting between options, integrating [[perception]], memory, value assessment, and predicted outcomes. It involves both automatic, intuitive pathways and deliberate, controlled reasoning. - Core Processes - Evaluation - weighing risks, rewards, and probabilities - Choice - selecting actions among alternatives - Feedback integration - learning from outcomes and updating strategies - Neural Substrates - [[Prefrontal Cortex]] - executive control, planning, inhibition - [[Striatum]] - reward processing and habit learning - [[Amygdala]] - emotional salience, risk sensitivity - [[Anterior Cingulate Cortex]] - conflict monitoring, error detection - Perspectives - [[Cognitive Psychology]] - heuristics, biases, rationality - [[Neuroscience]] - network dynamics of valuation and control - [[Philosophy]] - [[free will]], rational choice, ethics of agency - Methods - Behavioral paradigms - gambling tasks, economic games - Neuroimaging - fMRI for value coding - EEG for temporal dynamics - [[Computational models]] - reinforcement learning - drift-diffusion models ## Moral Decision-Making - Moral decision-making refers to the subset of decision-making that explicitly involves judgments about right and wrong, justice, fairness, or human well-being. - While all decision-making involves choices and consequences, moral decision-making is distinguished by the inclusion of ethical principles and values.