Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience (Beacon) Seminar: The surprising power of trial-and-error learning
Humans and other animals are highly adept at adapting their behavior to changes in the rewards in their environments. Trial-and-error learning is one of the simplest mechanisms for such improving from experience and forms the backbone of many of the key computational models of reward learning. These models, however, are unable to explain even basic learning phenomena, such as spontaneous recovery, where the degree of responding in a learning task can change with the passage of time. In this talk, I present a computational model that extends trial-and-error to learning from imagined or replayed experiences. This extension provides a novel explanation for many puzzling aspects of conditioning as well as for memory biases in risky choice and even potentially for curiosity and information-seeking. The breadth of empirical phenomena addressed by the model illustrates the power of a trial-and-error learning rule applied to both real and remembered experiences.
Date: 14 May 2019, 13:00 (Tuesday, 3rd week, Trinity 2019)
Venue: Biology South Parks Road, South Parks Road OX1 3RB
Venue Details: Schlich Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Dr Eliot Ludvig (University of Warwick )
Organising department: Department of Experimental Psychology
Organiser: Miriam Klein-Flügge (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: miriam.kleinflugge@psy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Santiago Castiello
Part of: Department of Experimental Psychology - Cognitive & Behavioural Neuroscience Seminar series (BEACON)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Stephanie Mcclain, George Goss