Abstract
Agential learning refers to the process of forming beliefs regarding one’s degree of control over actions and outcomes in their environment. We first provide an overview and evaluation of associative, statistical, and Bayesian models of agential learning. We then argue that the existing models have limitations in explaining the process of agential learning. Finally, we introduce an active inference account of agential learning, and present results from simulations. We propose that the active inference framework may provide a comprehensive model of agential learning describing three fundamental processes: (i) perception, (ii) learning, and (iii) action.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gallagher, S.: Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4(1), 14–21 (2000)
Haggard, P.: Sense of agency in the human brain. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 18(4), 196–207 (2017)
Albarracin, M., Pitliya, R.J.: The nature of beliefs and believing. Front. Psychol. 3 (2022)
Verschure, P.F., Pennartz, C.M., Pezzulo, G.: The why, what, where, when and how of goal-directed choice: neuronal and computational principles. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 369(1655), 20130483 (2014)
Ferster, C.B.: The use of the free operant in the analysis of behavior. Psychol. Bull. 50(4), 263 (1953)
Allan, L.G., Jenkins, H.M.: The judgment of contingency and the nature of the response alternatives. Can. J. Psychol./Revue canadienne de psychologie 34(1), 1 (1980)
Shanks, D.R., Dickinson, A.: Instrumental judgment and performance under variations in action-outcome contingency and contiguity. Memory Cogn. 19, 353–360 (1991)
Wasserman, E.A., Chatlosh, D., Neunaber, D.: Perception of causal relations in humans: factors affecting judgments of response-outcome contingencies under free-operant procedures. Learn. Motiv. 14(4), 406–432 (1983)
Wasserman, E.A., Elek, S.M., Chatlosh, D.L., Baker, A.G.: Rating causal relations: role of probability in judgments of response-outcome contingency. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 19(1), 174 (1993)
Vallée-Tourangeau, F., Murphy, R.A., Baker, A.: Contiguity and the outcome density bias in action-outcome contingency judgements. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. Sect. B 58(2b), 177–192 (2005)
Vallee-Tourangeau, F., Murphy, R.: Action-effect contingency judgment tasks foster normative causal reasoning. In: Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 820–820 (1999)
Msetfi, R.M., Murphy, R.A., Simpson, J., Kornbrot, D.E.: Depressive realism and outcome density bias in contingency judgments: the effect of the context and intertrial interval. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 134(1), 10 (2005)
Cheng, P.W.: From covariation to causation: a causal power theory. Psychol. Rev. 104(2), 367 (1997)
Hume, D.: A treatise of human nature: Volume 1: Texts (1739)
Kant, I.: Critique of pure reason. 1781, Modern Classical Philosophers, Cambridge, MA, Houghton Mifflin, pp. 370–456 (1908)
Michotte, A.: The perception of causality. Routledge, vol. 21 (2017)
Shanks, D.R., Lopez, F.J., Darby, R.J., Dickinson, A.: Distinguishing associative and probabilistic contrast theories of human contingency judgment. In: Psychology of learning and motivation, vol. 34, pp. 265–311. Elsevier (1996)
De Houwer, J., Beckers, T.: A review of recent developments in research and theories on human contingency learning. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. Sect. B 55(4), 289–310 (2002)
Pineño, O., Miller, R.R.: Comparing associative, statistical, and inferential reasoning accounts of human contingency learning. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 60(3), 310–329 (2007)
Shanks, D.R.: Associationism and cognition: human contingency learning at 25. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 60(3), 291–309 (2007)
Mackintosh, N.J.: A theory of attention: variations in the associability of stimuli with reinforcement. Psychol. Rev. 82(4), 276 (1975)
Miller, R.R., Matzel, L.D.: The comparator hypothesis: a response rule for the expression of associations. In: Psychology of learning and motivation, vol. 22, pp. 51–92. Elsevier (1988)
Pearce, J.M., Hall, G.: A model for pavlovian learning: Variations in the effectiveness of conditioned but not of unconditioned stimuli. Psychol. Rev. 87(6), 532 (1980)
Rescorla, R.A.: A theory of pavlovian conditioning: variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. Class. Conditioning Curr. Res. Theor. 2, 64–69 (1972)
Wagner, A.R., Rescorla, R.A.: Inhibition in Pavlovian conditioning: application of a theory. In: Boakes, R.A., Halliday, M.S. (eds.) Inhibition and Learning. Academic Press, New York (1972)
Chapman, G.B.: Trial order affects cue interaction in contingency judgment. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 17(5), 837 (1991)
De Houwer, J., Beckers, T.: Higher-order retrospective revaluation in human causal learning. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. Sect. B 55(2b), 137–151 (2002)
Dickinson, A.: Within compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgements. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. Sect. B 49(1), 60–80 (1996)
Cheng, P.W., Novick, L.R.: Covariation in natural causal induction. Psychol. Rev. 99(2), 365 (1992)
López, F.J., Almaraz, J., Fernández, P., Shanks, D.: Adquisición progresiva del conocimiento sobre relaciones predictivas: Curvas de aprendizaje en juicios de contingencia. Psicothema, pp. 337–349 (1999)
Friston, K., FitzGerald, T., Rigoli, F., Schwartenbeck, P., Pezzulo, G.: Active inference: a process theory. Neural Comput. 29(1), 1–49 (2017)
Blanco, F., Matute, H., Vadillo, M.A.: Mediating role of activity level in the depressive realism effect (2012)
Blanco, F., Matute, H., Vadillo, M.A.: Interactive effects of the probability of the cue and the probability of the outcome on the overestimation of null contingency. Learn. Behav. 41(4), 333–340 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-013-0108-8
Byrom, N., Msetfi, R., Murphy, R.: Two pathways to causal control: use and availability of information in the environment in people with and without signs of depression. Acta Physiol. (Oxf) 157, 1–12 (2015)
Griffiths, T.L., Tenenbaum, J.B.: Structure and strength in causal induction. Cogn. Psychol. 51(4), 334–384 (2005)
Waldmann, M.R.: Competition among causes but not effects in predictive and diagnostic learning. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 26(1), 53 (2000)
Kruschke, J.K.: Bayesian approaches to associative learning: from passive to active learning. Learn. Behav. 36(3), 210–226 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.36.3.210
Tenenbaum, J.B., Griffiths, T.L., Kemp, C.: Theory-based bayesian models of inductive learning and reasoning. Trends Cogn. Sci. 10(7), 309–318 (2006)
Chater, N., Oaksford, M., Hahn, U., Heit, E.: Bayesian models of cognition. Wiley Interdisc. Rev. Cogn. Sci. 1(6), 811–823 (2010)
Doya, K., Ishii, S., Pouget, A., Rao, R.P.: Bayesian brain: Probabilistic Approaches to Neural Coding. MIT Press, Cambridge (2007)
Von Helmholtz, H.: Handbuch der physiologischen Optik. Voss, vol. 9 (1867)
Nelson, J.D.: Finding useful questions: on bayesian diagnosticity, probability, impact, and information gain. Psychol. Rev. 112(4), 979 (2005)
De Ath, G., Everson, R.M., Rahat, A.A., Fieldsend, J.E.: Greed is good: exploration and exploitation trade-offs in bayesian optimisation. ACM Trans. Evol. Learn. Optim. 1(1), 1–22 (2021)
Friston, K.: The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory? Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 11(2), 127–138 (2010)
Parr, T., Pezzulo, G., Friston, K.J.: Active Inference: the Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior. MIT Press, Cambridge (2022)
Friston, K.J., Daunizeau, J., Kiebel, S.J.: Reinforcement learning or active inference? PLoS ONE 4(7), e6421 (2009)
Friston, K., Rigoli, F., Ognibene, D., Mathys, C., Fitzgerald, T., Pezzulo, G.: Active inference and epistemic value. Cogn. Neurosci. 6(4), 187–214 (2015)
Smith, R., Friston, K.J., Whyte, C.J.: A step-by-step tutorial on active inference and its application to empirical data. J. Math. Psychol. 107, 102–632 (2022)
Heins, C., Millidge, B., Demekas, D., et al.: Pymdp: a python library for active inference in discrete state spaces, arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.03904 (2022)
Friston, K.J., Rosch, R., Parr, T., Price, C., Bowman, H.: Deep temporal models and active inference. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 90, 486–501 (2018)
Blanco, F., Matute, H., Vadillo, M.A.: Depressive realism: wiser or quieter? Psychol. Record 59(4), 551–562 (2009)
Friston, K.J., Parr, T., de Vries, B.: The graphical brain: belief propagation and active inference. Netw. Neurosci. 1(4), 381–414 (2017)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pitliya, R.J., Murphy, R.A. (2024). A Model of Agential Learning Using Active Inference. In: Buckley, C.L., et al. Active Inference. IWAI 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1915. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47958-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47958-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-47957-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-47958-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)