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Self-orienting in human and machine learning

Nature Human Behaviour volume 7, pages 2126–2139 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

A current proposal for a computational notion of self is a representation of one’s body in a specific time and place, which includes the recognition of that representation as the agent. This turns self-representation into a process of self-orientation, a challenging computational problem for any human-like agent. Here, to examine this process, we created several ‘self-finding’ tasks based on simple video games, in which players (N = 124) had to identify themselves out of a set of candidates in order to play effectively. Quantitative and qualitative testing showed that human players are nearly optimal at self-orienting. In contrast, well-known deep reinforcement learning algorithms, which excel at learning much more complex video games, are far from optimal. We suggest that self-orienting allows humans to flexibly navigate new settings.

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Fig. 1: The Logic Game.
Fig. 2: Results of study 1 (Logic Game).
Fig. 3: The Contingency Game.
Fig. 4: Results of study 2 (Contingency Game).
Fig. 5: Results of study 3 (Switching Mappings Game).
Fig. 6: The Switching Embodiments Game.
Fig. 7: Results for study 4 (Switching Embodiments Game).
Fig. 8: Results for the mean number of steps during the last 50 levels and (where relevant) all post-perturbation levels.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/bwzth/.

Code availability

All code for data analysis and reproducing the plots is available at https://github.com/Ethical-Intelligence-Lab/probabilisticSelf.

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Acknowledgements

For running the artificial models, we used the Harvard Business School compute cluster. This research was funded by Harvard Business School. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marketing Unit, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA

    Julian De Freitas

  2. Department of Computer Engineering, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ahmet Kaan Uğuralp

  3. Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp

  4. Department of Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    L. A. Paul

  5. Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department, MIT, Boston, MA, USA

    Joshua Tenenbaum

  6. Psychology Department, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Tomer D. Ullman

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Contributions

J.D.F. initiated the research, J.D.F., A.K.U. and Z.O.-U. put together the data and conducted the analyses, and J.D.F., A.K.U., Z.O.-U., L.A.P., J.T. and T.D.U. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Julian De Freitas.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Human Behaviour thanks Nathan Faivre, Tony Prescott and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–20 and Tables 1–20.

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De Freitas, J., Uğuralp, A.K., Oğuz-Uğuralp, Z. et al. Self-orienting in human and machine learning. Nat Hum Behav 7, 2126–2139 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01696-5

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