Reinforcement Learning Signal Predicts Social Conformity

Reinforcement Learning Signal Predicts Social Conformity

We often change our decisions and judgments to conform with normative group behavior. However, the neural mechanisms of social conformity remain unclear. Here we show, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, that conformity is based on mechanisms that comply with principles of reinforcement learning. We found that individual judgments of facial attractiveness are adjusted in line with grou...

RUNNING HEAD: Social cognition and reinforcement learning Social cognition as reinforcement learning: Feedback modulates emotion inference

Neuroscientific studies of social cognition typically employ paradigms in which perceivers draw single-shot inferences about the internal states of strangers. Real world social inference features much different parameters: people often encounter and learn about particular social targets (e.g., friends) over time and receive feedback about when their inferences are correct or incorrect. Here we ...

Reinforcement learning in neurofuzzy traffic signal control

Reinforcement Learning For Adaptive Traffic Signal Control

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s 9.6 billion people will live in urban areas [2]. In many cities, opportunities to expand urban road networks are limited, so existing roads will need to more efficiently accommodate higher volumes of traffic. Consequently, there is a pressing need for technologically viable, low-cost solutions that can work with existing infrastructure to help alleviate increa...

Conformity and Indifference: The Structure of Frequency-Dependent Social Learning

We conducted an experiment to describe precisely how social learners use information about the distribution of behaviors in a relevant social group. Players chose between two technologies repeatedly. Payoffs were random, but one technology was better in the sense that its expected payoff was higher. Players were divided into two groups: 1) individual learners who knew their realized payoffs aft...