The successor representation subserves hierarchical abstraction for goal-directed behavior.

ABSTRACT: Humans have the ability to craft abstract, temporally extended and hierarchically organized plans. For instance, when considering how to make spaghetti for dinner, we typically concern ourselves with useful "subgoals" in the task, such as cutting onions, boiling pasta, and cooking a sauce, rather than particulars such as how many cuts to make to the onion, or exactly which muscles to contract. A core question is how such decomposition of a more abstract task into logical subtasks happens in the first place. Previous research has shown that humans are sensitive to a form of higher-order statistical learning named "community structure". Community structure is a common feature of abstract tasks characterized by a logical ordering of subtasks. This structure can be captured by a model where hu

SUBMITTER: Wientjes S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10906840 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature