Biased yet flexible weighting of perceptual and value information during decision-making

Biased yet flexible weighting of perceptual and value information during decision-making | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Biased yet flexible weighting of perceptual and value information during decision-making Basile Garcia, Valentin Wyart, Daphne Bavelier This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Human decision making routinely relies on combining cues from value-based and perceptual dimensions. Despite their frequent overlap in everyday decisions, these processes have mostly been studied separately, such that it remains unclear how humans combine perceptual and value-based information during decision-making. To address this gap, we ran 4 experiments (total N = 245) where we developed a gamified hybrid bandit task that orthogonally manipulates value and perceptual information across all options, each of which combines both dimensions. We found that humans can flexibly combine perceptual and learnt value information, yet with a bias toward perceptual cues. Analysis of individual differences revealed three decision strategies: ‘value-dominant’, ‘perceptual-dominant’, and ‘combined’ – for which both sources of information are weighted more equally. Crucially, varying task parameters across different iterations of the task successfully shifted the distribution of participants among these three decision strategies. Computational modeling further indicated that most participants combine perceptual and value information, with one dimension dominating the other. Individual differences in risk aversion could not explain participants’ decision strategy. Because single-dimension strategies yield suboptimal decision accuracy, their use betrays a tradeoff between cognitive effort and decision accuracy, revealing how humans flexibly arbitrate between perceptual and value-based information during hybrid decisions. Social science/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience/Decision Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Reward Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Garcia2026Supplementary.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9140831","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":609431999,"identity":"6da84906-3971-4331-8063-7a309b2e4dc7","order_by":0,"name":"Basile Garcia","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAyA+8ADKOcBQwcDABmIxNhDQkgDXcoZILQwwLQyMbTAGHi3m7McfHkioYLDrn3344YGf8w7n8fEvPsDwcwduLZY9OQYHEs4wJM84l2ZwsHfb4WI2iWcJjL1n8DjsQA7DgcQ2hmSGMzwMB3i3HU5skzhjwAx3ITYt558/OJD4jyFZHqjl4N85IC3nP+DXciPB4EBiA4OdAVDLYd4GoBb+Hga8WixnvAH65ZhEguEZNoPDMsfSgbawAT2FR4s5f/rjDx9qbOzlzjA//vimxjpxfv/hhw9+4tECBRJAt8HZCcA4JQLYI5j8RGkYBaNgFIyCEQQAu+Jb7H5HT2MAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Geneva","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Basile","middleName":"","lastName":"Garcia","suffix":""},{"id":609432000,"identity":"706f4c06-19d1-4391-bd50-cc43c6781864","order_by":1,"name":"Valentin Wyart","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"INSERM/Ecole Normale Supérieure/IPEA","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Valentin","middleName":"","lastName":"Wyart","suffix":""},{"id":609432001,"identity":"03b7a087-fa28-4ec2-879e-dac8dbfeafc0","order_by":2,"name":"Daphne Bavelier","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5904-1240","institution":"University of Geneva","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Daphne","middleName":"","lastName":"Bavelier","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-16 17:51:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108182137,"identity":"c8ca49ea-a93a-4b8a-8194-e9e1dd0dc6a8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-30 08:59:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1204069,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"GarciaManuscriptNHB2026.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9140831/v1_covered_e3c76d74-24be-48da-bdcf-cb623af7e34d.pdf"},{"id":108082621,"identity":"b82616f1-3aae-4ed0-8cf1-24e2b0561c06","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-29 08:04:33","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":465708,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Information","description":"","filename":"Garcia2026Supplementary.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9140831/v1/02d44c4017aaf7071cb11b9e.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Biased yet flexible weighting of perceptual and value information during decision-making","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHuman decision making routinely relies on combining cues from value-based and perceptual dimensions. Despite their frequent overlap in everyday decisions, these processes have mostly been studied separately, such that it remains unclear how humans combine perceptual and value-based information during decision-making. To address this gap, we ran 4 experiments (total \u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e = 245) where we developed a gamified hybrid bandit task that orthogonally manipulates value and perceptual information across all options, each of which combines both dimensions. We found that humans can flexibly combine perceptual and learnt value information, yet with a bias toward perceptual cues. Analysis of individual differences revealed three decision strategies: ‘value-dominant’, ‘perceptual-dominant’, and ‘combined’ – for which both sources of information are weighted more equally. \u0026nbsp;Crucially, varying task parameters across different iterations of the task successfully shifted the distribution of participants among these three decision strategies. Computational modeling further indicated that most participants combine perceptual and value information, with one dimension dominating the other. Individual differences in risk aversion could not explain participants’ decision strategy. Because single-dimension strategies yield suboptimal decision accuracy, their use betrays a tradeoff between cognitive effort and decision accuracy, revealing how humans flexibly arbitrate between perceptual and value-based information during hybrid decisions.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Biased yet flexible weighting of perceptual and value information during decision-making","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-29 08:04:30","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9140831/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"1fb8fefc-22bc-498c-ac5b-fa01cfaa2f05","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 29th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":64850178,"name":"Social science/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":64850179,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience/Decision"},{"id":64850180,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":64850181,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Reward"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-29T08:04:30+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-29 08:04:30","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9140831","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9140831","identity":"rs-9140831","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}