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Perspectives on Neuroscience

Perspectives on Neuroscience

Published on: July 31, 2007

The value of uncertainty: An active inference perspective.

Giovanni Pezzulo¹, Karl J Friston²

¹Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies,National Research Council, 00185 Rome,Italy.giovanni.pezzulo@istc.cnr.ithttp://www.istc.cnr.it/people/giovanni-pezzulo.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences

|April 4, 2019

Summary

Uncertainty drives exploration and learning by framing active inference. This perspective equally weights pragmatic reward-seeking and epistemic uncertainty-reduction for behavior.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
Computational Psychiatry

Background:

Behavior is driven by both seeking rewards and reducing uncertainty.
Active inference provides a framework for understanding decision-making under uncertainty.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore how uncertainty underwrites exploration and epistemic foraging.
To present a unified view of pragmatic and epistemic drives in active inference.

Main Methods:

Utilizing the active inference framework.
Analyzing the interplay between utility maximization and uncertainty minimization.

Main Results:

Uncertainty is a primary determinant of exploration and epistemic foraging.
Pragmatic and epistemic imperatives are equally weighted in active inference.

Conclusions:

Active inference offers a normative account of the trade-off between reward and uncertainty.
This framework unifies motivational incentives for reward and environmental uncertainty.