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Originally established at UCL in the early 1970’s as a weekly Cognition and Reasoning seminar, it later became an intercollegiate seminar on Language and Cognition in the early 1980’s. The name LJDM was finally coined in 1990, and the group has been running seminars under this name ever since, with lecturers and researchers in and around the UK meeting on a regular basis to discuss judgment and decision-making, judgments of likelihood, reasoning, thinking, problem solving, forecasting, risk perception and communication, and other related topics.
The LJDM seminar series is supported by:
University College London
City, University of London
Kings College London
Unless specified otherwise, all seminars take place on Wednesdays from 5:15-6:15 PM UK time. The seminar series will be held in a hybrid format via Zoom as well as at University College London.
To get updates on the current schedule and weekly reminders of the seminars, please subscribe to the Risk and Decision mailing list and follow our X account. All are welcome to attend.
Titles, abstracts and recordings (where available) of previous seminars can be found here.
If you would like to present your research to the group or to suggest a speaker, please contact the organizers:
- Hadeel Haj Ali (hadil.ali.22@ucl.ac.uk)
- Calvin Deans-Browne (calvin.deans-browne.20@ucl.ac.uk)
Audrey Zhang (zhongyao.zhang.19@ucl.ac.uk)
Academic Year 2024/25
Wednesday September 25, 2024
Speaker: Prof Benedetto De Martino, University College London.
Title: Value, Goals and Abstractions in Decision Making
Abstract: In the fields of neuroscience and machine learning, “value” has often been used interchangeably with “reward,” emphasising its hedonic aspect while neglecting its functional, concept-like nature. However, in real life, we rarely receive discrete numerical rewards at the end of our actions and need to build our own values. In this talk, I will present some work from our lab that challenges the canonical view that equates value and reward by showing how the brain is able to construct the value of an option or action on-the-fly by building abstractions that flexibly adapt to changing goals. I will demonstrate how this mechanism can facilitate learning and foster generalisation. Overall, I will discuss how rethinking the true nature of value is both feasible and necessary.
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 421, Roberts Building.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday October 2, 2024
No seminar this week. Our next seminar will be next week on Wednesday October 9th 2024.
Wednesday October 9, 2024
Speaker: Dr Konstantinos Tsetsos, University of Bristol.
Title: The timescale and form of context-dependence during human value-learning
Abstract: The way humans and other animals represent the values of alternatives can be systematically distorted by the presence of inferior or unavailable alternatives in the immediate choice-set (immediate context); or by the values of alternatives that were encountered in previous episodes (temporal context). Yet, the extent to which the immediate and temporal context (co-) shape such context-dependent value coding remains unclear. I will present data from experiments where we asked human participants to learn the reward values associated with three alternatives and to explicitly report their learned values before making binary and ternary choices. Context-dependent value distortions appeared in the pre-choice reports and were indistinguishable in binary (inferior decoy absent) and ternary (inferior decoy present) choice trials. These findings suggest that value representations are modulated by the temporal, rather than the immediate, context. Interestingly, the form of distortion cannot be explained by existing value normalization theories but is best captured by a mechanism that constructs value through memory-based binary comparisons.
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 421, Roberts Building.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday October 16, 2024
Speaker: Dr Tim Mullett, Warwick Business School.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 421, Roberts Building.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday October 23, 2024
Speaker: Dr Tom Reader, London School of Economics.
Title: Stakeholder safety action: patients and families intervening to prevent medical errors in hospitals.
Abstract: Research in healthcare finds that patients and families frequently intercede in the decision-making and work of clinicians in order to prevent adverse events (e.g., wrong diagnosis). This is significant for research on safety and risk, because it suggests that external stakeholders (e.g., service-users) can act as form of ‘safety net’ for catching errors and addressing problems in decision-making within organisations. I explored this idea by theorizing the concept of ‘stakeholder safety action’: this relates to stakeholders engaging in voicing (e.g., speaking-up) and correcting (e.g., fixing mistakes) behaviours in order to resolve perceived errors within an organisation and prevent them from causing harm. I investigated safety action by undertaking a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 1,857 written complaints sent by patients and families to UK hospitals about experiences of unsafe treatments. The analysis found patients routinely reported engaging in voicing and correcting behaviours, with these being elicited by concerns about decision-making (e.g., in making diagnoses, dispensing medicines) being missed or not resolved by staff. Through these behaviours, and depending on how staff responded to them, patients described trying to prevent accidents in three escalating ways: helping staff to avoid errors (e.g., during diagnoses), pushing into clinical work to resolve perceived mistakes (by changing medications), and bypassing teams and hospitals judged irredeemably unsafe. I surmise that stakeholder safety action contributes to organizational safety by acting as an important – yet external and often unrecognised – source of resilience within organisations.
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 421, Roberts Building.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday October 30, 2024
Speaker: Dr Nicolette Sullivan, London School of Economics.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 421, Roberts Building.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday November 6, 2024 - Reading Week - No talk
Wednesday November 13, 2024
Speaker: Dr Claire Heard, King’s College London.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 780, IoE, 20 Bedford Way.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday November 20, 2024
Speaker: Dr Tim Rakow, King’s College London.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room W2.06, IoE, 20 Bedford Way.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday November 27, 2024
Speaker: Prof Ulrike Hahn, Birkbeck, University of London.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 731, IoE, 20 Bedford Way.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday December 4, 2024
Speaker: TBC
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 780, IoE, 20 Bedford Way.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498
Wednesday December 11, 2024
Speaker: Prof Sophie Scott, University College London.
Title: TBC
Abstract: TBC
Time & Location: 17:15-18:15 UK time. Room 639, IoE, 20 Bedford Way.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99605138498