Call for papers: Testing psychological interpretations of formal decision models

[Susann Fiedler]

Dear Colleagues,

we are putting together a Special Issue in the Journal Decision on the Topic of Testing psychological interpretations of formal decision models, which might be interesting to some of you!

Please Many models of decision-making include parameters that help map model inputs (e.g., attribute values such as $-amounts or probabilities) to their outputs (e.g., actions such as choices or valuations). The values of these parameters can be tuned to account for variation in the input-output mapping, including across situations, individuals, or even time. Such model fitting serves to improve the prediction of decisions.
However, above and beyond the goal of prediction, parameters are often ascribed a meaning in terms of cognition or propensities to action. For example, variation in parameter values or the shape of a parametrized function might be said to reflect variability in the memory for different decision-inputs, differences in the allocation of attention to those inputs, or differences in how the inputs are processed. And variation in those parameter values across individuals might be assumed to reflect how values, motives, goals, or other personal concerns vary dependably from one person to the next.
The premise of this special issue is that such cognitive and psychological interpretations of the features of formal decision models can and should be tested against independent measurements of the cognitive process or psychological construct that underpins the interpretation.

We, therefore, call for manuscripts that report new empirical tests of the psychological interpretations or cognitive assumptions of formal decision models. These tests must include data that are additional to the decision-inputs and decision-outputs necessary to fit the model to data.
These additional data could include (but are not restricted to) the following kinds of data which can then be examined in relation to the relevant model parameter-values:

• experimental tests of the psychological models such as via critical tests or selective influence tests;
• measures that reflect cognitive processes (e.g., memory recall, attentional allocation) or mental representations of events or constructs (e.g., evidence strength, distributions of beliefs); 
• measures that reflect somatic or neural activity; and
• measures of individual difference.

We welcome manuscripts from proponents or sceptics of a given psychological interpretation of a model, as well as (particularly) manuscripts that report the joint work of the proponents and sceptics of a given position, or work that proposes and tests alternative interpretations of model parameters.
We are committed to accepting manuscripts on the basis of the quality of the research (e.g., well-designed, highly powered, reproducible and transparent research) without favor to one or other pattern of findings.
Manuscripts are accepted in any of the manuscript types that Decision accepts for new empirical research.
Important dates:

Deadline for manuscript submission: October 31, 2025

Guest editors:

  *   Professor Tim Pleskac, Indiana University Bloomington
  *   Professor Dr Susann Fiedler, Vienna University of Economics and Business
  *   Professor Dr Benjamin Scheibehenne, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

See here<https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/dec/testing-psychological-interpretations-formal-decision-models> for more information and here<https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/dec> for submission guidelines.

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Prof. Dr. Susann Fiedler

Business & Psychology

Vienna University of Economics and Business | Department Strategy & Innovation

Welthandelsplatz 1, Gebäude D5, 4.OG | 1020 Wien

Research Group Leader, "Economic Cognition" Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Research profile: google scholar or research gate

Mail: Susann....@wu.ac.at