Investigating decision making process in a 2d grid world: a hotel lobby experiment

Abstract

Recent research into video game playing (VGP) has produced varied and inconclusive results. Past investigations have indicated potential positive impacts of VGP on cognitive abilities, specifically enhancements in areas such as visuospatial aptitude, processing speed, working memory, the ability to handle multiple tasks and speed of decision making. During the decision-making process humans operate with past experience and different cognitive skills when they take actions and make decisions in the world. In recent years there has been a wide range of research drawing on different fields such as psychology, neuroscience and the combination and interdisciplinary approach of these research fields in the context of artificial intelligence, specifically reinforcement learning. From early philosophy to the present, human behavior is anchored in the idea of operating with two minds. The field of neuropsychology have focused on two different modes of human decision-making process also referred to as the dual-process model of behavior: controlled versus automatic processes, one more deliberate interacting with goals and the other focusing on reflexive, habitual and driven by affects. Both modes habituation and deliberation have been subjects of research. The arbitration between both modes of the decision-making process has developed to a research interest. Due to biological and behavioral similarities in reinforcement learning, both processes can be examined and understood. The following thesis has the purpose of examining how video game experience influences habituation and deliberation processes in human decision-making.