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Excited to share the preprint of my first PhD study with Ryan McKay, @clsebastian and @JHBalsters. We looked at exploration and learning in adolescence using a patch foraging task (1/6) https://twitter.com/PsyArXivBot/status/1267450319027548162
Adolescents and adults completed an apple picking foraging task with the aim of collecting as many points as possible. We calculated the optimal point at which they should leave patches across four environments (or orchards), which differed in how resource-rich they were (2/6)
We found that adolescents explored more than adults and their performance was closer to the optimal leaving point (3/6)
Computationally, we demonstrate that this is associated with a lower learning rate, meaning teenagers weigh recent information lower than adults when making their decisions (4/6)
We suggest that these processes support teenagers to learn about new situations, which is an important task for adolescents as they mature into independent adults (5/6)
Quarantined in lockdown is not how I pictured the mid-point of my PhD but I have really enjoyed working on this project and the new skills that have come with it. Very grateful to my supervisors for all of their guidance with this study! (6/6)
