The NSID (NeuroScience for Information and Decision Laboratory) is a laboratory affiliated with the Center for the Development of Information and Decision Systems (CDSID) and is located within the Department of Production Engineering (DEP) at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). NSID is a multi-user facility that serves several research groups, both within DEP and in other departments at UFPE. The laboratory is also connected to multiple graduate programs, particularly the Graduate Program in Production Engineering at UFPE (PPGEP–UFPE), which holds a CAPES rating of 7.
At NSID, advanced research is conducted in the areas of decision support and negotiation, integrating behavioral information from decision-makers with mathematical decision support models. These studies are supported by neuroscience tools, techniques, and methods. Through the use of psychophysiological measures, the research seeks to explain — and understand the implications of — various behavioral aspects observed in decision-making and negotiation processes.
The decision-making process is inherently multi-stage. When dealing with complex and relevant problems across various fields of knowledge, such decisions require the careful selection and use of different methods and techniques to support the decision-making process. These problems involve at least two alternative courses of action that meet multiple, often conflicting, objectives and criteria.
At NSID, various characteristics of multicriteria decision-making methods, negotiation, and group decision-making models described in the literature are being investigated. Multicriteria decision-making methods are employed to clarify the processes of choice, classification, or ranking of potential actions by incorporating multiple aspects into the decision context. Given the complexity of understanding and evaluating these problems, computational tools are required to support the decision-making process. Conversely, the negotiation-related aspects aim to help two or more parties involved reach their goals through agreements in situations where common yet conflicting interests exist. Negotiation is the key approach to decision-making when an individual, organization, or other entity cannot achieve its objectives unilaterally.
To illustrate the NSID’s main line of work and its impact, the editorial of the Annals of Operations Research issue featuring research developed at NSID (Roselli et al., 2020) states: “To help facilitate rational decision-making, many formal mathematical methods and models have been developed. Nonetheless, an application of such methods can artificially bias decisions, because these approaches cannot capture the real cognitive process performed by the decision maker. As a result, model generated solutions may incorrectly represent the natural choices of a person. Roselli, de Sousa Pereira, de Lima da Silva, de Almeida, Morais and Costa employ two inexpensive and non-invasive neuroscience methods, namely EEG and eye-tracking, to inform a decision support system whether a person is fully engaged and motivated. It is an interesting direction for the development of effective decision support systems because it allows optimizing not only the decision but also the engagement and attention of the decision maker. This paper indicates that modern mathematical approaches may, and probably should, be extended to account for behavior as well as emotional and cognitive states of the decision maker”.