Friston, K;
FitzGerald, T;
Rigoli, F;
Schwartenbeck, P;
O'Doherty, J;
Pezzulo, G;
(2016)
Active inference and learning.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
, 68
pp. 862-879.
10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.022.
Preview |
Text
1-s2.0-S0149763416301336-main.pdf Download (5MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This paper offers an active inference account of choice behaviour and learning. It focuses on the distinction between goal-directed and habitual behaviour and how they contextualise each other. We show that habits emerge naturally (and autodidactically) from sequential policy optimisation when agents are equipped with state-action policies. In active inference, behaviour has explorative (epistemic) and exploitative (pragmatic) aspects that are sensitive to ambiguity and risk respectively, where epistemic (ambiguity-resolving) behaviour enables pragmatic (reward-seeking) behaviour and the subsequent emergence of habits. Although goal-directed and habitual policies are usually associated with model-based and model-free schemes, we find the more important distinction is between belief-free and belief-based schemes. The underlying (variational) belief updating provides a comprehensive (if metaphorical) process theory for several phenomena, including the transfer of dopamine responses, reversal learning, habit formation and devaluation. Finally, we show that active inference reduces to a classical (Bellman) scheme, in the absence of ambiguity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Active inference and learning |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.022 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.022 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Active inference; Habit learning; Bayesian inference; Goal-directed; Free energy; Information gain; Bayesian surprise; Epistemic value; Exploration; Exploitation |
| 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 > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1506130 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
