Research Interests
- Decision Making
- Cognitive Modeling
- Planning & Strategic Thinking
- Information Integration
- Behavioral Economics
Research Description
I study how people make decisions. I am particularly interested in complex choice scenarios, where people must, for example, search for information, learn from experience, or plan for the future. Much of my work takes a cognitive perspective, with the goal of explaining the decision process in terms of psychological constructs such as attention, perception, learning, and memory.
Through a combination of behavioral experiments and computational modeling, I develop and test new theories of decision making. I mathematically formalize these theories as computational models that I compare and select according to various methods. In doing so, my work links traditional research domains in Psychology, Economics, Marketing, Management, Game Design, AI, and Public Policy.
I am planning to admit graduate students as a primary research advisor for the Fall 2023.
Education
Ph.D., Indiana University
Courses Taught
Decisions & Judgments
Computational Cognitive Modeling
Learning & Decision Making
Honors & Awards
Bruno de Finetti Prize, European Association for Decision Making (2015)
Highlighted Publications
Vanunu, Y., Hotaling, J. M., Le Pelley, M. E., & Newell, B. R. (2021). How top-down and bottom-up attention modulate risky choice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(39), [e2025646118]. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2025646118
Hotaling, J. M., Donkin, C., Jarvstad, A., & Newell, B. R. (2022). MEM-EX: An exemplar memory model of decisions from experience. Cognitive Psychology, 138, [101517]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2022.101517
Hotaling, J. M. (2020). Decision field theory-planning: A cognitive model of planning on the fly in multistage decision making. Decision, 7(1), 20-42. https://doi.org/10.1037/dec0000113
Vanunu, Y., Hotaling, J. M., & Newell, B. R. (2020). Elucidating the differential impact of extreme-outcomes in perceptual and preferential choice. Cognitive Psychology, 119, [101274]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101274
Hotaling, J. M., Jarvstad, A., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2019). How to Change the Weight of Rare Events in Decisions From Experience. Psychological Science, 30(12), 1767-1779. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619884324
Recent Publications
DeCaro, D. A., DeCaro, M. S., Hotaling, J. M., & Appel, R. (2022). Formalizing the fundamental Faustian bargain: Inefficacious decision-makers sacrifice their freedom of choice to coercive leaders for economic security. PloS one, 17(9 September), e0275265. [e0275265]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275265
Hotaling, J. M., & Kellen, D. (Accepted/In press). Dynamic decision making: Empirical and theoretical directions: Empirical and theoretical directions. In K. D. Federmeier (Ed.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation - Advances in Research and Theory (pp. 207-238). (Psychology of Learning and Motivation - Advances in Research and Theory). Academic Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2022.03.004
Hotaling, J. M., Donkin, C., Jarvstad, A., & Newell, B. R. (2022). MEM-EX: An exemplar memory model of decisions from experience. Cognitive Psychology, 138, [101517]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2022.101517
Hotaling, J. M., Navarro, D. J., & Newell, B. R. (2021). Skilled Bandits: Learning to Choose in a Reactive World. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 47(6), 879-905. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000981
Vanunu, Y., Hotaling, J. M., Le Pelley, M. E., & Newell, B. R. (2021). How top-down and bottom-up attention modulate risky choice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(39), [e2025646118]. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2025646118