The construction and use of cognitive maps in model-based control.

ABSTRACT: When making decisions, we sometimes rely on habit and at other times plan toward goals. Planning requires the construction and use of an internal representation of the environment, a cognitive map. How are these maps constructed, and how do they guide goal-directed decisions? We coupled a sequential decision-making task with a behavioral representational similarity analysis approach to examine how relationships between choice options change when people build a cognitive map of the task structure. We found that participants who encoded stronger higher-order relationships among choice options showed increased planning and better performance. These higher-order relationships were more strongly encoded among objects encountered in high-reward contexts, indicating a role for motivation during c

SUBMITTER: Karagoz AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11759100 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature