Hi Brad, > > Yes, its amazing what even simple animal brains can do with > > simple learning problems, when rewards quickly follow > > behaviors. The forebrain evolved to solve the hard learning > > problems, when there are long delays between behaviors and > > rewards, and multiple behaviors precede rewards. To solve > > this 'credit assignment problem' it needs a model of how > > the world works. The forebrain seems stupid unless we award > > it points for difficulty. > > I thought about that too, but then I thought of games like slot machines, craps and > roulette. In these cases, reward follows commission very quickly, and yet we're > still hopelessly bad at stopping. > > Obviously a time delay has a big impact on credit assignment, but even some games > with short time scales are outside of our rationality agents' range of analysis. I > think it's an issue of task complexity (very odd given that roulette's probabilities > are so trivial).
Yes, reward comes quickly in casino games, but it takes a long period of observation to see that average reward is negative. And of course most people do bet modestly or not at all. A small percentage become addicted to the emotions of win rewards. I think these people are a lot like drug addicts, failing to balance long term and short term rewards. It would be an interesting experiment to create a lever game equivalent to blackjack, playing perhaps several hands per second and with long run won/loss record expressed in a lever angle, so that players would feel the long run averages over short time periods. Perhaps that would move the game from the forebrain to simple motor learning. In any case, I am quite sure about the role of conscious reasoning in providing a world simulation model for difficult learning problems. Chess is a good illustration of that. But I agree it is interesting how simple casino games can befuddle some peoples' forebrains. Cheers, Bill ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
