An MIT study reveals that humans and animals continue to explore new strategies even after mastering the best approach to a task. This discovery could reshape our understanding of decision-making and have implications for autism research.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) uncovers a surprising trait shared by both humans and animals: the tendency to continue exploring new ways to solve a task even after learning the optimal strategy.
Published in Current Biology, the study might have broader implications for understanding decision-making and behavioral strategies in unpredictable environments.
Humans and animals, it turns out, are "explorers" at heart. The study found that this exploratory behavior persists even when it sometimes leads to increased errors.
"If the goal is to maximize reward, you should never deviate once you have found the perfect solution, yet you keep exploring," senior author Mriganka Sur, the Paul and Lilah Newton Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, said in a news release.
The researchers observed this behavior in both humans and marmosets, small primates, during a simple task involving reaction times to the disappearance of an image on a screen. Despite having learned the best approach to the task, the subjects continued to let the results of previous trials influence their next actions, even if it meant sacrificing potential rewards.
"It's like food. We all like certain foods, but we still keep trying different foods because you never know, there might be something you could discover," Sur added.
The study involved three humans and two marmosets, who had to press a button as quickly as possible after an image disappeared from a screen.
The research team noticed that the subjects reacted faster the longer the image stayed on the screen, adhering to a known prediction model called the "hazard model."
Interestingly, mathematical modeling revealed that subjects' reaction times were influenced by the duration of the previous trial, suggesting a persistent exploration of alternative strategies.
This behavior has also been documented in mice in previous research by Sur's lab, where mice continued to deviate from a learned successful strategy.
"The persistence of behavioral changes even after task learning may reflect exploration as a strategy for seeking and setting on an optimal internal model of the environment," the scientists wrote in the new study.
One of the significant implications of this research lies in the realm of autism spectrum disorders. Differences in environmental predictions are believed to be a key characteristic of autism.
Marmosets, being small, social and cognitively advanced, might now serve as a more informative model for autism studies. By demonstrating that marmosets exhibit human-like predictive behaviors, this study adds weight to the idea that these primates could help advance autism research.
Understanding why both humans and animals continue to explore, even after finding the best solution, could provide deeper insights into the complexities of behavioral strategies and decision-making in uncertain environments. As Sur succinctly put it, exploring ensures that we are always open to discovering something even better, driving innovation and adaptability in an ever-changing world.