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Abstracting reward

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

David Spurrett*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban4041, South Africa. spurrett@ukzn.ac.za https://philpeople.org/profiles/david-spurrett

Abstract

The costs of and returns from actions are varied and individually concrete dimensions, combined in heterogeneous ways. The many needs of the body also fluctuate. Making action selection efficiently track some ultimate goal, whether fitness or another utility function, itself requires representational abstraction. Therefore, predictive brains need abstract value representations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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