Influence of surprise on reinforcement learning in younger and older adults.

ABSTRACT: Surprise is a key component of many learning experiences, and yet its precise computational role, and how it changes with age, remain debated. One major challenge is that surprise often occurs jointly with other variables, such as uncertainty and outcome probability. To assess how humans learn from surprising events, and whether aging affects this process, we studied choices while participants learned from bandits with either Gaussian or bi-modal outcome distributions, which decoupled outcome probability, uncertainty, and surprise. A total of 102 participants (51 older, aged 50-73; 51 younger, 19-30 years) chose between three bandits, one of which had a bimodal outcome distribution. Behavioral analyses showed that both age-groups learned the average of the bimodal bandit less well. A trial

SUBMITTER: Koch C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11346965 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature