The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration

Abstract Growing evidence suggests that behavioral variability plays a critical role in how humans manage the tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. In these decisions a little variability can help us to overcome the desire to exploit known rewards by encouraging us to randomly explore somet...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Samuel F. Feng, Siyu Wang, Sylvia Zarnescu, Robert C. Wilson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c513672a398d49c4a8ebeb79d57578bd
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:c513672a398d49c4a8ebeb79d57578bd
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c513672a398d49c4a8ebeb79d57578bd2021-12-02T10:44:21ZThe dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration10.1038/s41598-021-82530-82045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c513672a398d49c4a8ebeb79d57578bd2021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82530-8https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Growing evidence suggests that behavioral variability plays a critical role in how humans manage the tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. In these decisions a little variability can help us to overcome the desire to exploit known rewards by encouraging us to randomly explore something else. Here we investigate how such ‘random exploration’ could be controlled using a drift-diffusion model of the explore–exploit choice. In this model, variability is controlled by either the signal-to-noise ratio with which reward is encoded (the ‘drift rate’), or the amount of information required before a decision is made (the ‘threshold’). By fitting this model to behavior, we find that while, statistically, both drift and threshold change when people randomly explore, numerically, the change in drift rate has by far the largest effect. This suggests that random exploration is primarily driven by changes in the signal-to-noise ratio with which reward information is represented in the brain.Samuel F. FengSiyu WangSylvia ZarnescuRobert C. WilsonNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Samuel F. Feng Siyu Wang Sylvia Zarnescu Robert C. Wilson The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
description	Abstract Growing evidence suggests that behavioral variability plays a critical role in how humans manage the tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. In these decisions a little variability can help us to overcome the desire to exploit known rewards by encouraging us to randomly explore something else. Here we investigate how such ‘random exploration’ could be controlled using a drift-diffusion model of the explore–exploit choice. In this model, variability is controlled by either the signal-to-noise ratio with which reward is encoded (the ‘drift rate’), or the amount of information required before a decision is made (the ‘threshold’). By fitting this model to behavior, we find that while, statistically, both drift and threshold change when people randomly explore, numerically, the change in drift rate has by far the largest effect. This suggests that random exploration is primarily driven by changes in the signal-to-noise ratio with which reward information is represented in the brain.
format	article
author	Samuel F. Feng Siyu Wang Sylvia Zarnescu Robert C. Wilson
author_facet	Samuel F. Feng Siyu Wang Sylvia Zarnescu Robert C. Wilson
author_sort	Samuel F. Feng
title	The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
title_short	The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
title_full	The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
title_fullStr	The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
title_full_unstemmed	The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
title_sort	dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/c513672a398d49c4a8ebeb79d57578bd
work_keys_str_mv	AT samuelffeng thedynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT siyuwang thedynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT sylviazarnescu thedynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT robertcwilson thedynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT samuelffeng dynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT siyuwang dynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT sylviazarnescu dynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration AT robertcwilson dynamicsofexploreexploitdecisionsrevealasignaltonoisemechanismforrandomexploration
_version_	1718396788179730432

The dynamics of explore–exploit decisions reveal a signal-to-noise mechanism for random exploration

Ejemplares similares