Douglas Lee is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy. His research relates to subjective value-based decision-making and subjective assessments of certainty and confidence. It involves computational modeling and behavioral experimentation, as well as some elements of eye-tracking and pupilometry.

 

Lee earned his Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and conducted his doctoral research on “The Metacognitive Control of Decision-Making” at the Paris Brain Institute, where he was a member of the Motivation, Brain, and Behavior lab. His research included developing a novel computational model and conducting behavioral experiments with which to validate it. In brief, his model is based on the idea that the brain, when faced with a decision, will automatically perform a metacognitive assessment of the expected costs and benefits of deliberation. This assessment will control the cognitive processes and allow the decision-maker to think more or less carefully about something, depending on the context.

 

Hosted by Prof Marius Usher at Tel Aviv University, Lee will attempt to advance the state of the art in computational modeling of value-based decision-making. In particular, he will focus on information processing in the brain during choice deliberation, and how the dynamics of attention relate to concepts such as value uncertainty and information availability. This work will rely on monitoring eye gaze patterns and micro-saccades as human decision-makers examine available choice options.