The interaction of memory and reinforcement learning in value-based choice
Final Report Abstract
Decision-making and learning are essential cognitive functions for adaptive behavior and increase the probability of survival. Here, we conducted five sub-projects examining dynamic decision-making and learning in uncertain environments. Sub-project 1 is a chapter giving an introduction to decision-making under uncertainty. Sub-project 2 combines behavioral experiments and computational modeling, which shows how humans adaptively incorporate knowledge about perceptual uncertainty for dynamic learning and decision-making. Subproject 3 is a large-scale study that includes N=700 participants. It examines the relationship between dynamic learning in uncertain and aversive environments and trait anxiety. Using modeling and different versions of previously established learning tasks, we show that trait anxiety has no systematic effect on learning abilities. Sub-project 4 examines forgetting in mice and shows that forgetting can be seen as a dynamic learning process through which information that is more relevant to adaptive behavior is more likely to be remembered. Finally, sub-project 5 compares learning based on surprising outcomes between younger and older adults. This study combines behavioral experiments and computational modeling and suggests that learning in older adults is more strongly driven by surprising outcomes. Together, the results of the project reveal crucial computational mechanisms behind dynamic learning across contexts and species. Ongoing follow-up studies emerged from these results. We are currently examining the role of pupil-linked arousal when learning under perceptual uncertainty. Moreover, the task developed for sub-project 3 is part of two projects of a recently established DFG research unit on dynamic learning in volatile environments.
Publications
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Adaptive Integration of Perceptual and Reward Information in an Uncertain World.
Ganesh, Prashanti; Cichy, Radoslaw M.; Schuck, Nicolas W.; Finke, Carsten & Bruckner, Rasmus
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Influence of surprise on reinforcement learning in younger and older adults. PLOS Computational Biology, 20(8), e1012331.
Koch, Christoph; Zika, Ondrej; Bruckner, Rasmus & Schuck, Nicolas W.
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Natural forgetting reversibly modulates engram expression. eLife, 12.
O.'Leary, James D.; Bruckner, Rasmus; Autore, Livia & Ryan, Tomás J.
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Absence of Systematic Effects of Internalizing Psychopathology on Learning Under Uncertainty.
Satti, Muhammad H.; Wille, Katharina; Nassar, Matthew R.; Cichy, Radoslaw M.; Schuck, Nicolas W.; Dayan, Peter & Bruckner, Rasmus
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Decision-making under uncertainty. Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 213-233. Elsevier.
Bruckner, Rasmus & Nassar, Matthew R.
