Decision Making as a Window on Cognition

A decision is a commitment to a proposition or plan of action based on information and values associated with the possible outcomes. The process operates in a flexible timeframe that is free from the immediacy of evidence acquisition and the real time demands of action itself. Thus, it involves deliberation, planning, and strategizing. This Perspective focuses on perceptual decision making in nonhuman primates and the discovery of neural mechanisms that support accuracy, speed, and confidence in a decision. We suggest that these mechanisms expose principles of cognitive function in general, and we speculate about the challenges and directions before the field. Michael Shadlen and Roozbeh Kiani provide an overview of current views in the field on perceptual decision making and the neural mechanisms that support the accuracy, speed, and confidence in a decision and speculate on challenges and opportunities for the field going forward.