Characterizing the reciprocal interactions between cultural environments and individual goals is crucial for building a comprehensive account of human cultural evolution. This paper introduces the cu...

Aiming for something big? Break that big goal into smaller, manageable steps. Then narrow your focus. This will keep your eyes on the prize.

Nature Human Behaviour - In this study, Collins proposes an alternative dual-process (working memory and habit) model of reinforcement learning in humans.

Reinforcement learning agents learn from rewards, but humans can uniquely assign value to novel, abstract outcomes in a goal-dependent manner. However, this flexibility is cognitively costly, making l...

As large language models (LLMs) start interacting with each other and generating an increasing amount of text online, it becomes crucial to better understand how information is transformed as it passe...

Given its prevalence in our wakeful mental activity, spontaneous thought (ST) has been attributed several roles in cognition, most of which engage the…

Humans are autotelic agents who learn by setting and pursuing their own goals. However, the precise mechanisms guiding human goal selection remain unclear. Learning progress, typically measured as...

Spotlight talk at the 5th International Convention on the Mathematics of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Rome, 2024 (https://neuromonster.org). Recorded and hosted with generous funding from the Kavli Foundation, Gatsby Foundation, Templeton Foundation, Harvard University, European Research Council, Artificial Intelligence Journal, and Google DeepMind. © Thinking About Thinking, Inc, a 501(c)3 Nonprofit registered in New Jersey, USA. https://thinkingaboutthinking.org