ANC Workshop: James Raymond and David Sterratt, Chair: Alba Crespi

James Raymond

Using computational models to study individual differences: the case of trait anxiety

Computational methods are increasingly being applied to the study of psychiatric disorders. Often, this involves fitting models to the behavior of individuals with subclinical self-reported character traits which are known vulnerability factors for the development of psychiatric conditions. The relationship between such self-report measures and the behavioral processes captured in computational models has not been well-characterized and should not be taken for granted. 

This talk will consider which aspects of long-term behavior are captured by scores on the self-report questionnaire measure of ‘trait anxiety’ and how these may emerge from underlying computational processes susceptible to cross-sectional analysis.