Working memory as a representational template for reinforcement learning.

Autor: Shibata K; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Level 6, West Wing, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK. kengo.shibata@ndcn.ox.ac.uk., Klar V; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK., Fallon SJ; School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK., Husain M; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Level 6, West Wing, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK., Manohar SG; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Level 6, West Wing, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2024 Nov 12; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 27660. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Nov 12.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-79119-2
Abstrakt: Working memory (WM) and reinforcement learning (RL) both influence decision-making, but how they interact to affect behaviour remains unclear. We assessed whether RL is influenced by the format of visual stimuli held in WM, either feature-based or unified, object-based representations. In a pre-registered paradigm, participants learned stimulus-action combinations that provided reward through 80% probabilistic feedback. In parallel, participants retained the RL stimulus in WM and were asked to recall this stimulus after each RL choice. Crucially, the format of representation probed in WM was manipulated, with blocks encouraging either separate features or bound objects to be remembered. Incentivising a feature-based WM representation facilitated feature-based learning, shown by an improved choice strategy. This reveals a role of WM in providing sustained internal representations that are harnessed by RL, providing a framework by which these two cognitive processes cooperate.
Competing Interests: Declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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