Decision Making B

Academic unit or major

Humanities and social science courses

Instructor(s)

Takehiro Inohara

Class Format

Lecture (HyFlex)

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

5-6 Tue / 5-6 Fri

Class

-

Course Code

LAH.T208

Number of credits

200

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

1Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 27, 2025

Language

Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

This course deals with basics of non-cooperative game theory, which is a mathematical theory of competitive decision making situations, and many variations and generalizations of non-cooperative game theory through lectures, discussion, and working on exercise problems.

The aim of this course is to acquaint the students with the characteristics of the theories by providing mathematical definitions of various concepts and analysis methods of the theories, which include: basic frameworks in non-cooperative game theory such as “games in normal form,” “games in extensive form,” and “repeated games,” and variations and generalizations of non-cooperative game theory such as “metagame theory,” “conflict analysis,” “hypergame theory,” and “soft game theory.”

Course description and aims

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1) State the definitions of concepts used in the mathematical theories of competitive decision making situations;
2) State the analysis methods in the mathematical theories of competitive decision making situations; and
3) State the characteristics of the mathematical theories of competitive decision making situations.

Keywords

games in normal form, games in extensive form, repeated games, metagame analysis, conflict analysis, hypergame theory, soft game theory

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Each theory is dealt with over two or three classes.

First, a lecture on the definitions of basic concepts and analysis methods is presented. Then, the students examine the contents of the lecture, and work on exercises. After the class, each student writes and submits a “summary report” on what he/she learned through individual observation, other students' ideas, the lecture, and exercises. Also, the students submit the answers to the exercises.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Takehiro Inohara, “Rationality and Flexibility,” Keiso-syobo, 2002 (in Japanese) (Section 1.1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5) (ISBN-10: 4326502223, ISBN-13: 978-4326502226)

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Course materials are found on Science Tokyo LMS or provided during class.

If you would like to learn about content related to this course, refer to:
-Takehiro Inohara, “Emotions and Perception,” Keiso-syobo, 2002 (in Japanese) (ISBN-10: 4326502231, ISBN-13: 978-4326502233)
-Takehiro Inohara (ed.), “Consensus Building, Keiso-syobo, 2011 (in Japanese) (ISBN-13: 978-4326301966)
-Takehiro Inohara, “GMCR: An Introduction,”Keiso-syobo, 2023 (in Japanese) (ISBN-13: 978-4326504985）

Evaluation methods and criteria

Assessment will be based on “summary reports” (brief summary of what you learned in each class)" (50% in total) and answers to exercises (50% in total.)
There will be no final exam.

There are no make-up assignments for any absence from classes, regardless of the reason.
Read the text book of this course to find out the content of the class you missed.

Related courses

• LAH.T108 ： Decision Making A
• LAH.T307 ： Decision Making C
• LAH.T107 ： Social Modeling A
• LAH.T209 ： Social Modeling B
• LAH.T308 ： Social Modeling C

Prerequisites

Prospective students should have interests in decision making problems.
It is not necessary to have taken Decision Making A to take this course and understand its contents.

Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).

Prof. Takehiro Inohara, inostaff[at]shs.ens.isct.ac.jp

When inquiring by emails, include the course title in the subject "Decision Making B", and your student ID and name in the body of the email.

Office hours

Make an appointment by email.

Other

This course includes the content of science.