Neil, Louise;
Valton, Vincent;
Viding, Essi;
Armbruster-Genc, Diana;
Vuong, Vivien;
Packer, Katy;
Sharp, Molly;
... McCrory, Eamon; + view all
(2025)
Navigating a varying reward environment in childhood and adolescence.
Scientific Reports
, 15
, Article 22715. 10.1038/s41598-025-05725-3.
Preview |
Text
Neil et al 2025.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Optimal reward learning requires individuals to adjust their learning rates – the extent to which new information replaces old. Learning rates should be higher in volatile environments, where new information is more salient, and lower in stable environments, where the longer-term history of outcomes is more predictive. It is not known, however, whether this adjustment in learning rates changes with age or is associated with better mental health and social functioning. We administered a child-friendly probabilistic reinforcement learning task with both fixed and fluctuating reward schedules to 121 participants aged 8–16 years. Adjustment of learning rates across childhood and adolescence to suit the levels of uncertainty in the environment did not differ by age, nor was it associated with better mental health and social functioning. Instead we found that learning rates for worse-than-expected outcomes generally decreased with age, temperature increased with age and higher learning rates, specifically during positive stable environments, were associated with greater self-reported prosocial behaviour. Our results highlight the exaggerated impact of negative feedback on children and suggest an increase in exploratory behaviour between childhood and adolescence.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Navigating a varying reward environment in childhood and adolescence |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-025-05725-3 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05725-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Computational modelling, Learning rates, Reinforcement learning, Child development, Belief updating |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214716 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
