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Goal-directed learning of the statistical structure of the environment

Project description

Reward in statistics-based human decisions

Humans and other animals need to learn to compress their sensory input efficiently - guided by both the statistical regularities in, and the reward available from, the environment. Recent psychological and neuroscience studies show that reward signals duly modulate the representations learned. However, these representations determine how we can recognise objects and concepts, and reward's indirect influence over these remains obscure. Hypothesising that humans use limited computational resources to steer learned representations towards their utility for gaining reward, RELEARN proposes a mathematical model that integrates reinforcement learning and probabilistic representational learning. We will test behavioural and neural predictions in experiments where humans learn to gain reward based on the feature statistics of a simulated environment.

Coordinator

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Net EU contribution
€ 174 806,40
Address
Hofgartenstrasse 8
80539 Munchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Research Organisations
Other funding
€ 0,00