The effect of adding a constant to all payoffs: Experimental investigation, and implications for reinforcement learning models

Ido Erev; Yoella Bereby-Meyer; Alvin E. Roth

doi:10.1016/s0167-2681(99)00028-1

The effect of adding a constant to all payoffs: Experimental investigation, and implications for reinforcement learning models

Ido Erev, Yoella Bereby-Meyer, Alvin E. Roth

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines the effect on learning in simple decision tasks of the addition of a constant to all payoffs. Experiment 1 reveals that this effect, initially observed in a probability learning task, is not limited to single person decision making under uncertainty. Experiment 2 shows that the effect is not linear. Two additional experiments show that the non-linearity cannot be explained by whether zero is in the payoff range. The implications of these results for reinforcement learning models are evaluated and two models that capture the main results are proposed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	111-128
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume	39
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-2681(99)00028-1
State	Published - 1 Jan 1999

Keywords

Adaptive learning
Probability matching
Reference point
Reinforcement
Stimulus response

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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10.1016/s0167-2681(99)00028-1

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abstract = "This paper examines the effect on learning in simple decision tasks of the addition of a constant to all payoffs. Experiment 1 reveals that this effect, initially observed in a probability learning task, is not limited to single person decision making under uncertainty. Experiment 2 shows that the effect is not linear. Two additional experiments show that the non-linearity cannot be explained by whether zero is in the payoff range. The implications of these results for reinforcement learning models are evaluated and two models that capture the main results are proposed.",

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The effect of adding a constant to all payoffs: Experimental investigation, and implications for reinforcement learning models

Abstract

Keywords

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