TY - GEN
T1 - A Simple Sequential Algorithm for Approximating Bayesian Inference
AU - Bonawitz, Elizabeth
AU - Denison, Stephanie
AU - Chen, Annie
AU - Gopnik, Alison
AU - Griffiths, Thomas L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments. This research was supported by the McDon-nell Foundation Causal Learning Collaborative, grant IIS-0845410 from the National Science Foundation, and grant FA-9550-10-1-0232 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by the McDonnell Foundation Causal Learning Collaborative, grant IIS-0845410 from the National Science Foundation, and grant FA-9550-10-1-0232 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Publisher Copyright:
© CogSci 2011.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - People can apparently make surprisingly sophisticated inductive inferences, despite the fact that there are constraints on cognitive resources that would make performing exact Bayesian inference computationally intractable. What algorithms could they be using to make this possible? We show that a simple sequential algorithm, Win-Stay, Lose-Shift (WSLS), can be used to approximate Bayesian inference, and is consistent with human behavior on a causal learning task. This algorithm provides a new way to understand people’s judgments and a new efficient method for performing Bayesian inference.
AB - People can apparently make surprisingly sophisticated inductive inferences, despite the fact that there are constraints on cognitive resources that would make performing exact Bayesian inference computationally intractable. What algorithms could they be using to make this possible? We show that a simple sequential algorithm, Win-Stay, Lose-Shift (WSLS), can be used to approximate Bayesian inference, and is consistent with human behavior on a causal learning task. This algorithm provides a new way to understand people’s judgments and a new efficient method for performing Bayesian inference.
KW - algorithmic level
KW - Bayesian inference
KW - causal learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84866754284&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84866754284&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84866754284
T3 - Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2011
SP - 2463
EP - 2468
BT - Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2011
A2 - Carlson, Laura
A2 - Hoelscher, Christoph
A2 - Shipley, Thomas F.
PB - The Cognitive Science Society
T2 - 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science, CogSci 2011
Y2 - 20 July 2011 through 23 July 2011
ER -