Research carried out at the Memory & Decision Lab, Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste includes the following topics:

1)    Judgment and Decision Making: attentional and memory bases of judgment and decision making, individual differences in judgment and decision making (including age-related ones), decision structuring processes;

2)    Memory: facilitation and interference in memory retrieval and high-order cognitive tasks, cognitive control and strategies in memory tasks and high-order cognitive tasks.

Research also includes applied cognitive psychology studies on decision-making, memory, and the environment.

Individual and age-related differences in decision-making competence

In this project, we investigate individual differences in several facets of decision-making competence, with the aims of (1) shedding light on the cognitive processes underlying judgment and decision making, and (2) explaining age-related changes. A first stream of studies focused on the relation between executive functioning skills, general cognitive abilities, and various facets of judgment and decision-making. A second stream of studies has investigated age-related differences in judgment and decision making and their relations with memory changes, as an extension of the Betula excellence project on memory, aging, and dementia. International cooperation in this project involves Timo Mäntylä and Lars-Göran Nilsson (Stockholm University), Patrik Hansson (Umeå University), Wändi Bruin be Bruine (Leeds University), and Andrew M. Parker (RAND). Parts of this project have been funded by Riksbanken Jubileumsfond, the Swedish National Council, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Cuing and interference in memory and higher order cognition

The aim of this research project is to better understand the circumstances in which providing cues helps vs. hinders performance, both in ‘traditional’ episodic and semantic memory tasks and in more complex cognitive tasks involving ill-structured decision making. We initially focused on the ironic effects of retrieval cues that, in some circumstances, hinder memory retrieval and memory-based decision making (i.e., part-set cuing effects in option generation). Later on, the neural bases of the part-set cuing effects and cue-related interference in Parkison’s disease have been studied. Neural/patient studies have been carried out with Cristiano Crescentini (University of Udine, formerly at SISSA PhD), and in collaboration with Tim Shallice (SISSA, UCL) and Emiliano Macaluso (Santa Lucia Foundation). A different research effort aims at reaching a deeper understanding of interference effects as related to information presentation, both in episodic memory and in memory-based decision making. This work has been supported by the University of Trieste and partner institutions.

Decision structuring: underlying processes and assessment

Decision structuring (i.e. the construction of a representation of the decision problem enabling choice) is a core aspect of decision making, and it relies on a variety of components (e.g., option generation, attribute identification, estimation), and underlying skills. However, despite the theoretical and applied importance of the topic, empirical research is scarce. In this project, we are investigating some aspects of decision structuring (in particular, option generation and estimation) with a variety of approaches (lab experiments, individual-differences studies, and neural paradigms), in order to shed more light on the nature of decision structuring components and on their underlying cognitive and neural bases. Age-related differences in decision structuring are also being investigated. Another aim of the project is to develop and validate psychometrically-sound measures for the assessment of individual differences in decision structuring. This project is carried out in cooperation with Timo Mäntylä (Stockholm University), Wändi Bruine de Bruin (Leeds University), and Andrew M. Park (RAND), with the support of the University of Trieste (FRA grant), Stockholm University, and other partner institutions.