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Exploration-exploitation: A cognitive dilemma still unresolved.

Russell N James¹

¹a Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute , Texas Tech University , Lubbock , USA.

Cognitive Neuroscience

|August 29, 2015

Summary

This study simplifies the exploration-exploitation dilemma by focusing on information maximization. While useful for simulations, this model struggles with real-world scenarios involving objective outcomes like fitness.

Keywords:

Exploitation Exploration Simulation

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Area of Science:

Decision-making theory
Behavioral ecology
Artificial intelligence

Background:

The exploration-exploitation dilemma presents a challenge in balancing seeking new information with utilizing existing knowledge.
Traditional models often treat exploration and exploitation as separate, competing objectives.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and evaluate a unified model that subsumes exploitation within an information-maximizing framework.
To assess the applicability of this single-maximization model in various contexts.

Main Methods:

Theoretical modeling of decision-making processes.
Comparison of a single-maximization model against a dual-maximization dilemma.
Application in artificial simulations with varying costs of exploration.

Main Results:

The information-maximizing model is more mathematically tractable than dual-maximization approaches.
The model effectively simulates information-maximizing subsystems.
The model demonstrates utility in costless exploration simulations.

Conclusions:

The proposed information-maximizing model offers a simplified and tractable approach to the exploration-exploitation dilemma.
However, its applicability is limited in real-world scenarios with objective outcomes, such as biological fitness, compared to information-based outcomes.