title: From Creatures of Habit to Goal-Directed Learners: Tracking the Developmental Emergence of Model-Based Reinforcement Learning.
abstract: Theoretical models distinguish two decision-making strategies that have been formalized in reinforcement-learning theory. A model-based strategy leverages a cognitive model of potential actions and their consequences to make goal-directed choices, whereas a model-free strategy evaluates actions based solely on their reward history. Research in adults has begun to elucidate the psychological mechanisms and neural substrates underlying these learning processes and factors that influence their relative recruitment. However, the developmental trajectory of these evaluative strategies has not been well characterized. In this study, children, adolescents, and adults performed a sequential reinforcement-learning task that enabled estimation of model-based and model-free contributions to choice. Whereas a model-free strategy was apparent in choice behavior across all age groups, a model-based strategy was absent in children, became evident in adolescents, and strengthened in adults. These results suggest that recruitment of model-based valuation systems represents a critical cognitive component underlying the gradual maturation of goal-directed behavior.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College.
authors.forename: Johannes H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Decker
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University.
authors.forename: A Ross
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University Department of Psychology, Princeton University.
authors.forename: Nathaniel D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Daw
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College cah2031@med.cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hartley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cognitive development; decision making; open data; reinforcement learning