Cost-Benefit Arbitration Between Multiple Reinforcement-Learning Systems.

TitleCost-Benefit Arbitration Between Multiple Reinforcement-Learning Systems.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsKool, W, Gershman, SJ, Cushman, FA
JournalPsychol Sci
Volume28
Issue9
Pagination1321-1333
Date Published2017 Sep
ISSN1467-9280
Abstract

Human behavior is sometimes determined by habit and other times by goal-directed planning. Modern reinforcement-learning theories formalize this distinction as a competition between a computationally cheap but inaccurate model-free system that gives rise to habits and a computationally expensive but accurate model-based system that implements planning. It is unclear, however, how people choose to allocate control between these systems. Here, we propose that arbitration occurs by comparing each system's task-specific costs and benefits. To investigate this proposal, we conducted two experiments showing that people increase model-based control when it achieves greater accuracy than model-free control, and especially when the rewards of accurate performance are amplified. In contrast, they are insensitive to reward amplification when model-based and model-free control yield equivalent accuracy. This suggests that humans adaptively balance habitual and planned action through on-line cost-benefit analysis.

DOI10.1177/0956797617708288
Alternate JournalPsychol Sci
PubMed ID28731839

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