Learning and choosing in an uncertain world: An investigation of the explore–exploit dilemma in static and dynamic environments.

How do people solve the explore–exploit trade-off in a changing environment? In this paper we present experimental evidence from an “observe or bet” task, in which people have to determine when to engage in information-seeking behavior and when to switch to reward-taking actions. In particular we fo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Cognitive Psychology Vol. 85; pp. 43 - 78
Autores principales: Navarro, Daniel J., Newell, Ben R., Schulze, Christin
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Academic Press Inc. Mar2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=112827193&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 112827193
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00100285
        COP
      jtl: Cognitive Psychology
      issn: 00100285
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Mar2016
      vid: 85
      pid: 735
      pub: Academic Press Inc.
    artinfo:
      ui:
        112827193
        10.1016/j.cogpsych.2016.01.001
      ppf: 43
      ppct: 35
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: Learning and choosing in an uncertain world: An investigation of the explore–exploit dilemma in static and dynamic environments.
      aug:
        au:
          Navarro, Daniel J.
          Newell, Ben R.
          Schulze, Christin
        affil:
          School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Australia
          School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
      su:
        Information-seeking behavior
        Human behavior
        Mathematical models
        Learning problems
      sug:
        subj:
          Information-seeking behavior
          Human behavior
          Mathematical models
          Learning problems
      keyword:
        Decision making
        Decisions from experience
        Dynamic environments
        Explore–exploit dilemma
        Decision making
        Decisions from experience
        Dynamic environments
        Explore–exploit dilemma
      ab: How do people solve the explore–exploit trade-off in a changing environment? In this paper we present experimental evidence from an “observe or bet” task, in which people have to determine when to engage in information-seeking behavior and when to switch to reward-taking actions. In particular we focus on the comparison between people’s behavior in a changing environment and their behavior in an unchanging one. Our experimental work is motivated by rational analysis of the problem that makes strong predictions about information search and reward seeking in static and changeable environments. Our results show a striking agreement between human behavior and the optimal policy, but also highlight a number of systematic differences. In particular, we find that while people often employ suboptimal strategies the first time they encounter the learning problem, most people are able to approximate the correct strategy after minimal experience. In order to describe both the manner in which people’s choices are similar to but slightly different from an optimal standard, we introduce four process models for the observe or bet task and evaluate them as potential theories of human behavior.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N