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Noisy Memory Generates Value in Changing Environments
Jorge Ramírez-Ruiz1, R Becket Ebitz1
1Département de Neurosciences, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Adaptive Behavior
|November 10, 2025
Summary
Mnemonic errors in episodic memory can enhance sequential decision-making. Imperfect Memory Programs (IMPs) and lossy agents (LIMPs) approximate value-based decision-making, suggesting memory imperfections can improve, not impair, cognitive functions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Episodic memory's role in sequential decision-making is debated.
- Standard models integrate rewards, unlike memory recall.
- Previous work introduced Imperfect Memory Programs (IMPs) for memory-based decision-making.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop biologically plausible approximations of IMPs called lossy agents (LIMPs).
- To investigate how memory imperfections influence sequential value-based decision-making.
- To explore if mnemonic errors can improve decision performance.
Main Methods:
- Developed lossy agents (LIMPs) with 1-bit reward memory and probabilistic encoding failures.
- Evaluated IMPs and LIMPs in classic decision-making tasks.
- Analyzed the impact of differential encoding probabilities for rewards and omissions.
Main Results:
- LIMPs and IMPs performed comparably or better than perfect memory agents.
- These agents generated decision-making patterns resembling value-based computations.
- Adjusting encoding probabilities allowed trade-offs in matching/maximizing and flexibility/stability.
Conclusions:
- Episodic agents can approximate value-based agents using realistic memory noise.
- Mnemonic errors can potentially improve decision-making performance.
- Memory imperfections offer an alternative explanation for behavioral correlates of 'value'.
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