When scientific research confirms the obvious! Of course, besides size/value and frequency of rewards, timing of rewards matters too!
"... Researchers ... recently carried out a mouse study challenging this assumption, suggesting that the strength of reward-based learning also depends on the timing between rewards and not just on how many times a mouse is rewarded after the same stimulus. Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, could reshape existing models of learning, decision-making and potentially even addiction. ..."
From the abstract:
"Learning the causes of rewards is crucial for survival. Cue–reward associative learning is controlled in the brain by mesolimbic dopamine. It is widely believed that dopamine drives learning by conveying a reward prediction error. Dopamine-based learning algorithms are generally ‘trial-based’: learning progresses sequentially across individual cue–outcome experiences. A foundational assumption of these models is that the more cue–reward pairings one experiences over a fixed duration, the more one learns this association.
By identifying a new biological principle governing learning, we disprove this assumption. Specifically, across many conditions in mice, we show that behavioral and dopaminergic learning rates are proportional to the duration between rewards (or punishments). Due to this rule, the overall learning over a fixed duration is independent of the number of cue–outcome experiences. A dopamine-based model of retrospective learning explains these findings, thereby providing a unified account of the biological mechanisms of learning."
Fig. 3: Learning rate scales proportionally with reward frequency across a range of trial spacing intervals.
Disclaimer:
I am currently blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.
My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.
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