Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Center for Neuroengineering, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN 55455 , USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2019 Feb 18;374(1766):20180139. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0139.
Self-control refers to the ability to deliberately reject tempting options and instead select ones that produce greater long-term benefits. Although some apparent failures of self-control are, on closer inspection, reward maximizing, at least some self-control failures are clearly disadvantageous and non-strategic. The existence of poor self-control presents an important evolutionary puzzle because there is no obvious reason why good self-control should be more costly than poor self-control. After all, a rock is infinitely patient. I propose that self-control failures result from cases in which well-learned (and thus routinized) decision-making strategies yield suboptimal choices. These mappings persist in the decision-makers' repertoire because they result from learning processes that are adaptive in the broader context, either on the timescale of learning or of evolution. Self-control, then, is a form of cognitive control and the subjective feeling of effort likely reflects the true costs of cognitive control. Poor self-control, in this view, is ultimately a result of bounded optimality. This article is part of the theme issue 'Risk taking and impulsive behaviour: fundamental discoveries, theoretical perspectives and clinical implications.
自我控制是指有目的地抵制诱人的选择，而是选择那些能产生更大长期利益的选择的能力。虽然一些明显的自我控制失败在更仔细的观察下是奖励最大化的，但至少有一些自我控制失败显然是不利的和非策略性的。较差的自我控制的存在提出了一个重要的进化难题，因为没有明显的理由说明良好的自我控制应该比较差的自我控制更昂贵。毕竟，岩石是无限耐心的。我提出，自我控制失败是由于经过良好学习（因此是例行化的）的决策策略导致次优选择的情况。这些映射在决策者的范围内保持不变，因为它们来自于学习过程，这些学习过程在更广泛的背景下是适应性的，无论是在学习的时间尺度上还是在进化的时间尺度上。因此，自我控制是一种认知控制形式，主观的努力感可能反映了认知控制的真实成本。从这个角度来看，较差的自我控制最终是由于有限的最优性。本文是主题问题“冒险和冲动行为：基本发现、理论视角和临床意义”的一部分。
