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“Switching” between fast and slow processes is just reward-based branching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2023

George Ainslie Open the ORCID record for George Ainslie [Opens in a new window]
George Ainslie*
Affiliation:
Department of Veterans Affairs, Coatesville, PA, USA ga@picoeconomics.org www.picoeconomics.org
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Abstract

Shortcuts to goals are rewarded by faster attainment and punished by more frequent failure, so selection of the various kinds – heuristics, cached sequences (habits or macros), gut instincts – depends on reward history just like other kinds of choice. The speeds of shortcuts lie on continua along with speeds of deliberation, and these continua have no obvious separation points.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e113
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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