title: The generalization of prior uncertainty during reaching.
abstract: Bayesian statistics defines how new information, given by a likelihood, should be combined with previously acquired information, given by a prior distribution. Many experiments have shown that humans make use of such priors in cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks, but where do priors come from? As people never experience the same situation twice, they can only construct priors by generalizing from similar past experiences. Here we examine the generalization of priors over stochastic visuomotor perturbations in reaching experiments. In particular, we look into how the first two moments of the prior--the mean and variance (uncertainty)--generalize. We find that uncertainty appears to generalize differently from the mean of the prior, and an interesting asymmetry arises when the mean and the uncertainty are manipulated simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611, PDBC, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras 2780, Portugal, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras 2780, Portugal, hugoguh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hugo L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.affiliation: Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vilares
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, and Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
authors.forename: Konrad P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Kording
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012399:Rotation; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bayesian; generalization; prior; uncertainty; visuomotor rotation