Decision-Making and Action Selection in Two Minds

Abstract

This paper discusses the differences between decision-making and action selection. Human behavior can be viewed as the integration of output of System 1, i.e., unconscious automatic processes, and System 2, i.e., conscious deliberate processes. System 1 activates a sequence of automatic actions. System 2 monitors System 1’s performance according to the plan it has created and, at the same time, it activates future possible courses of actions. Decision-making narrowly refers to System 2’s slow functions for planning for the future and related deliberate activities, e.g., monitoring, for future planning. On the other hand, action selection refers to integrated activities including not only System 1’s fast activities but also System 2’s slow activities, not separately but integrally. This paper discusses the relationships between decision-making and action selection based on the architecture model the authors have developed for simulating human beings’ in situ action selection, Model Human Processor with Real time Constraints (MHP/RT) [3] by extending the argument we have done in the argument we have made in previous work [5].