QLS seminar: "Learning without detailed balance" - 27 June 11h00

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

Dear All,

On Tuesday, 27 June  2023 at 11:00 CET, Michele Vodret (CentraleSupélec, 
Gif-sur-Yvette, île-de-france) will give a seminar titled:

*    Learning without detailed balance*

Abstract:
The assumption of rational traders has been the subject of a harsh 
debate in theoretical economics for the past 40 years. Recent 
experimental evidence gathered by cognitive neuroscientists suggests 
that the way we learn in simple tasks is in stark contrast with the 
rationality assumption: the way we learn is biased. Confirmation bias, 
for example,
is the tendency to incorporate the information in line with our priors 
and disregard the information in contrast with them.
These findings beg for an explanation. In particular, if evolution 
selected such biases, they should be beneficial in some circumstances: 
for example, in tasks with two asymmetric bandits, there are 'optimal 
biases' which allow individuals to increase the average earned reward. 
The reason for these additional gains is that biased beliefs are 
magnified, allowing one to distinguish more clearly between two similar 
options.
Interestingly, in these contexts, the optimal bias corresponds to a 
learning dynamics that breaks detailed balance, leading, therefore, to 
irreversible dynamics, even in the stationary state. We argue, by means 
of analytical calculations and numerical simulations, that the optimal 
bias corresponds to dynamics that maximize the entropy production in the 
stationary state. In particular, in this context, the stationary state 
with maximum entropy production allows agents to safely explore the 
environment without being stuck in a sub-optimal belief.

_The seminar will take place in the *L. Stasi seminar room*, Leonardo 
building, First floor_

__Indico webpage: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10380


You are all most welcome to attend!

Best regards,
Erica

-- 
Erica Sarnataro
Group Secretary
Quantitative Life Sciences
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Trieste,  Italy
Tel. +39-040-2240623
www.ictp.it/research/qls.aspx
e-mail:qls at ictp.it