Trying to reduce the practices of millions of people to trends is simplistic and ignores the role of individual preference in decision making.
A two-phase study was designed to explore learning process and final preferences during decision making.
We did not study the actual effect of preferences on decision making.
Given the heterogeneity of the older population, and widely varying treatment (outcome) preferences, treatment decision making needs to be tailored to the specific circumstances of the individual older adult, taking into account their preferences and values [ 4, 20].
This study offers the opportunity to develop an empirical, theoretical and practical understanding of the dynamics of treatment resources, patient preferences and decision making processes for treatments which incur a personal financial cost.
The content, acceptance and effectiveness of such approaches should be tested to ensure that the autonomy, quality of life and capacity of patients are respected and enhanced, and that their values and preferences dominate decision making [ 48].
Our research proposal focuses on the micro level of decision making, studying preferences in individual decision making.
Interestingly however, in a task that required the animal to remember the sensory characteristics and identity of different rewards across delays to make a subsequent discrimination (rather than use reward preference to guide decision making), we found little evidence that OFC neurons encoded reward preference (Lara et al., 2009).
Most patients expressed a preference for shared decision making about CHD prevention (see Table 1).
This corresponds with participants' reports of not always being actively involved in deciding about treatment, despite their preference for collaborative decision making.
Men want and demand many children, and their fertility preference promotes unilateral decision making with a negative influence on female contraceptive use.
