Value-based attention but not divisive normalization influence decisions with multiple alternatives

Violations of economic rationality principles in choices between three or more options are critical for understanding the neural and cognitive mechanisms of decision making. A recent study reported that the relative choice accuracy between two options decreases as the value of a third (distractor) option increases, and attributed this effect to divisive normalization of neural value representations. In two preregistered experiments, a direct replication and an eye-tracking experiment, we assessed the replicability of this effect and tested an alternative account that assumes value-based attention to mediate the distractor effect. Surprisingly, we could not replicate the distractor effect in our experiments. However, we found a dynamic influence of distractor value on fixations to distractors as predicted by the value-based attention theory. Computationally, we show that extending an established sequential sampling decision-making model by a value-based attention mechanism offers a comprehensive account of the interplay between value, attention, response times, and decisions.