Sequential Decisions: A Computational Comparison of Observational and Reinforcement Accounts

Sepahvand, Nazanin Mohammadi; Stöttinger, Elisabeth; Danckert, James; Anderson, Britt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094308

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A bird?”). In the context of the rock–paper–scissors game, we found that RBD patients explored a limited selection of alternative strategies (Danckert et al 2012b ) and employed less efficient exploration strategies (Sepahvand et al 2014 ). If updating impairments in RBD patients are due to a generic failure to explore alternatives evident across different tasks and domains, we expect them to show no benefit from the contextual information provided by the gradual morphing sequence (Egré et al 2013 ; Raffman 2011 ; Stöttinger et al 2016 ; Table 1 , second row).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating impairments and the failure to explore new hypotheses following right brain damage

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have shown recently that damage to the right hemisphere impairs the ability to update mental models when evidence suggests an old model is no longer appropriate. We argue that this deficit is generic in the sense that it crosses multiple cognitive and perceptual domains. Here, we examined the nature of this updating impairment to determine more precisely the underlying mechanisms. We had right (RBD, N = 12) and left brain damaged (LBD, N = 10) patients perform versions of our picture-morphing task in which pictures gradually morph from one object (e.g., shark) to another (e.g., plane). Performance was contrasted against two groups of healthy older controls, one matched on age (HCO-age-matched, N = 9) and another matched on general level of cognitive ability (HCO-cognitively-matched, N = 9). We replicated our earlier findings showing that RBD patients took longer than LBD patients and HCOs to report seeing the second object in a sequence of morphing images. The groups did not differ when exposed to a morphing sequence a second time, or when responding to ambiguous images outside the morphing context. This indicates that RBD patients have little difficulty alternating between known representations or labeling ambiguous images. Instead, the difficulty lies in generating alternate hypotheses for ambiguous information. Lesion overlay analyses, although speculative given the sample size, are consistent with our fMRI work in healthy individuals in implicating the anterior insular cortex as critical for updating mental models.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating impairments and the failure to explore new hypotheses following right brain damage

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is speculated that healthy adult participants use high-level "exploratory" search strategies (e.g., it started out as a duck, but what else could it be? )-an exploration strategy that may be impaired after damage to the right hemisphere (Danckert et al, 2012;Mohammadi Sepahvand, Stöttinger, Danckert, & Anderson, 2014). Such exploration strategies may also be late developing in children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children struggle beyond preschool-age in a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task

Rafetseder

Schuster

Hawelka

et al. 2019

Psychological Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Children until the age of five are only able to reverse an ambiguous figure when they are informed about the second interpretation. In two experiments, we examined whether children's difficulties would extend to a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task. Children (Experiment 1: 66 3-to 5-year olds; Experiment 2: 54 4-to 9-year olds) and adult controls saw line drawings of animals gradually morph-through well-known ambiguous figures-into other animals. Results show a relatively late developing ability to recognize the target animal, with difficulties extending beyond preschool-age. This delay can neither be explained with improvements in theory of mind, inhibitory control, nor individual differences in eye movements. Even the best achieving children only started to approach adult level performance at the age of 9, suggesting a fundamentally different processing style in children and adults.

show abstract

“…Yet, despite its importance, the issue of how expertise is developed in the context of sequential choice situations remains still under-explored. While the study of optimal strategies or courses of action to solve sequential choice scenarios is a fundamental aim of such studies (Alagoz et al, 2009 ; Friedel et al, 2014 ; Schulte et al, 2014 ; Sepahvand et al, 2014 ), it is still necessary to better understand how agents learn and acquire such strategies as they interact with the world (Fu and Anderson, 2006 ; Acuña and Schrater, 2010 ; Sims et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Search Behaviors during the Acquisition of Expertise in a Sequential Decision-Making Task

Moënne‐Loccoz

Vergara

López

et al. 2017

Front. Comput. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Our daily interaction with the world is plagued of situations in which we develop expertise through self-motivated repetition of the same task. In many of these interactions, and especially when dealing with computer and machine interfaces, we must deal with sequences of decisions and actions. For instance, when drawing cash from an ATM machine, choices are presented in a step-by-step fashion and a specific sequence of choices must be performed in order to produce the expected outcome. But, as we become experts in the use of such interfaces, is it possible to identify specific search and learning strategies? And if so, can we use this information to predict future actions? In addition to better understanding the cognitive processes underlying sequential decision making, this could allow building adaptive interfaces that can facilitate interaction at different moments of the learning curve. Here we tackle the question of modeling sequential decision-making behavior in a simple human-computer interface that instantiates a 4-level binary decision tree (BDT) task. We record behavioral data from voluntary participants while they attempt to solve the task. Using a Hidden Markov Model-based approach that capitalizes on the hierarchical structure of behavior, we then model their performance during the interaction. Our results show that partitioning the problem space into a small set of hierarchically related stereotyped strategies can potentially capture a host of individual decision making policies. This allows us to follow how participants learn and develop expertise in the use of the interface. Moreover, using a Mixture of Experts based on these stereotyped strategies, the model is able to predict the behavior of participants that master the task.

show abstract

Sequential Decisions: A Computational Comparison of Observational and Reinforcement Accounts

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

Updating impairments and the failure to explore new hypotheses following right brain damage

Updating impairments and the failure to explore new hypotheses following right brain damage

Children struggle beyond preschool-age in a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task

Modeling Search Behaviors during the Acquisition of Expertise in a Sequential Decision-Making Task

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About