A computational cognitive-affective model of decision-making

How do affective processes interact with cognitive processes to modulate our behavior? Understanding the processes that influence the interactions between affective stimuli and human decision-making behavior is important for predicting typical behavior under a variety of circumstances, from purchasing behavior to deciding when to enact certain rules of engagement in battle scenarios. Though some computational process models have been proposed in the past, they typically focus on higher-level phenomena and are less focused on the particular architectural mechanisms related to the behavior explored. This, in turn, can make it very difficult to combine the proposed model with existing related work (i.e., the models can't be tractably combined). We used a modified version of the Iowa Gambling Task to explore the effects of subliminal affective (visual) stimuli on decision-making behavior. We developed a model that runs within the ACT-R/F architecture that completes the same task completed by participants. In addition to the affective and cognitive memory components particularly important to the discussion, the model also uses perceptual and motor components within the architecture to complete the task. The architecture has representations of primitive affect that interact with cognitive memory components mainly through an affective-associations module (meant to capture behavior typically ascribed to several amygdalar substructures). The model and affective architectural mechanisms provide a process-oriented explanation for the ways affect may interact with higher-level cognition to mediate human behavior during daily-life.