On second thoughts: changes of mind in decision-making

Abstract

The ability to change initial decisions in the face of new or potentially conflicting information is fundamental to adaptive behavior. From perceptual tasks to multiple-choice tests, research has shown that changes of mind often improve task performance by correcting initial errors. Decision makers must, however, strike a balance between improvements that might arise from changes of mind and potential energetic, temporal, and psychological costs. In this review, we provide an overview of the change-of-mind literature, focusing on key behavioral findings, computational mechanisms, and neural correlates. We propose a conceptual framework that comprises two core decision dimensions - time and evidence source - which link changes of mind across decision contexts, as a first step toward an integrated psychological account of changes of mind.

Keywords: change of mind; decision-making; metacognition; sequential sampling.