Paper Info
Title
Towards a cognitive robotics methodology for reward-based decision-making: dynamical systems modelling of the Iowa Gambling Task
Abstract
The somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) posits that the role of emotions and mental states in decision-making manifests through bodily responses to stimuli of import to the organism's welfare. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), proposed by Bechara and Damasio in the mid-1990s, has provided the major source of empirical validation to the role of somatic markers in the service of flexible and cost-effective decision-making in humans. In recent years the IGT has been the subject of much criticism concerning: (1) whether measures of somatic markers reveal that they are important for decision-making as opposed to behaviour preparation; (2) the underlying neural substrate posited as critical to decision-making of the type relevant to the task; and (3) aspects of the methodological approach used, particularly on the canonical version of the task. In this paper, a cognitive robotics methodology is proposed to explore a dynamical systems approach as it applies to the neural computation of reward-based learning and issues concerning embodiment. This approach is particularly relevant in light of a strongly emerging alternative hypothesis to the SMH, the reversal learning hypothesis, which links, behaviourally and neurocomputationally, a number of more or less complex reward-based decision-making tasks, including the 'A-not-B' task-already subject to dynamical systems investigations with a focus on neural activation dynamics. It is also suggested that the cognitive robotics methodology may be used to extend systematically the IGT benchmark to more naturalised, but nevertheless controlled, settings that might better explore the extent to which the SMH, and somatic states per se, impact on complex decision-making.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1080/09540091.2010.489742
Connect. Sci.
Keywords
DocType
Volume
decision-making manifest,complex decision-making,somatic marker,igt benchmark,somatic marker hypothesis,cost-effective decision-making,cognitive robotics methodology,somatic state,complex reward-based decision-making task,dynamical system,alternative hypothesis,iowa gambling task,dynamical systems,dynamic system,cognitive robotics,field theory,somatic markers,technology,reversal learning,cost effectiveness
Journal
22
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
3
0954-0091
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.38
30
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Robert Lowe111112.22
Tom Ziemke268167.03