Opportunities and challenges integrating resource-rational analysis with developmental perspectives

Abstract

Lieder and Griffiths present the computational framework “resource-rational analysis” to address the reverse-engineering problem in cognition. Here we discuss how developmental psychology affords a unique and critical opportunity to employ this framework, but which is overlooked in this piece. We describe how developmental change provides an avenue for ongoing work as well as inspiration for expansion of the resource-rational approach.

What’s in the Box? Preschoolers Consider Ambiguity, Expected Value, and Information for Future Decisions in Explore-Exploit Tasks

“…Just as the preschoolers in our study weighed the potential of exploration to inform future decision-making, a learner might consider whether the effort expended on mental search outweighs the benefit to future explanatory reasoning. Such behavior would be consistent with computational models of belief revision (e.g., Bonawitz, Denison, Gopnik, & Griffiths, 2014 ), resource-rational decision-making (e.g., Lieder & Griffiths, 2020 , see Persaud et al, 2020 for developmental commentary), and recent empirical evidence that preschoolers trade-off cognitive effort and expected reward in deciding whether to tackle new problems (Wang & Bonawitz, 2022 ). Our finding that preschoolers’ explore-exploit decisions are sensitive to the expected value and utility of information gain offers novel avenues for better understanding choices to adhere to or abandon beliefs during learning.…”

The rhythm of learning: Theta oscillations as an index of active learning in infancy

“…Bayesian models of belief updating provide theoretically compelling principles of learning, but there is a growing demand for models that integrate these principles of learning with affective states (e.g. Bonawitz, 2018 ; Li et al, 2019 ; Persaud et al, 2020 ). Such integration requires information about the physiological components that might constrain or moderate learning.…”