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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.01.16.903476

Origin of perseveration in the trade-off between reward and complexity

Gershman, S. J.
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Abstract

When humans and other animals make repeated choices, they tend to repeat previously chosen actions independently of their reward history. This paper locates the origin of perseveration in a trade-off between two computational goals: maximizing rewards and minimizing the complexity of the action policy. We develop an information-theoretic formalization of policy complexity and show how optimizing the trade-off leads to perseveration. Analysis of two data sets reveals that people attain close to optimal trade-offs. Parameter estimation and model comparison supports the claim that perseveration quantitatively agrees with the theoretically predicted functional form.

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Gershman, S. J.. 2020-01-16. Origin of perseveration in the trade-off between reward and complexity. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.16.903476

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