SI 502: Choice and Learning

Course is about problem-solving. All cognitive activities are fundamentally problem solving in nature. Even non-problem activities (watching a movie) require problem solutions. For example, should you spend time at a movie or with girl/boyfriend? Should you rent or buy a house? We study decision-making about problems given current information and resources. In particular, how do humans make choices? How do human factors affect choices?

What is the role of information? We also study learning; that is, how can we prepare to make better future choices? What information should we acquire?

In studying these problems, we combine two different disciplines: cognitive psychology, which is descriptive, perceptual and heuristic; and economics, which uses normative, deliberate reasoning to solve well-defined problems without cognitive limitations.