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Monkey Plays Pac-Man with Compositional Strategies and Hierarchical Decision-making

View ORCID ProfileQianli Yang, Zhongqiao Lin, Wenyi Zhang, Jianshu Li, Xiyuan Chen, Jiaqi Zhang, View ORCID ProfileTianming Yang
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.02.462713
Qianli Yang
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Zhongqiao Lin
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing, China, 100049
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Wenyi Zhang
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing, China, 100049
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Jianshu Li
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Xiyuan Chen
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Beijing, China, 100049
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Jiaqi Zhang
3Brown University; Rhode Island, United States, 02912
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Tianming Yang
1Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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  • For correspondence: tyang@ion.ac.cn
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Abstract

Humans can often handle daunting tasks with ease by developing a set of strategies to reduce decision making into simpler problems. The ability to use heuristic strategies demands an advanced level of intelligence and has not been demonstrated in animals. Here, we trained macaque monkeys to play the classic video game Pac-Man. The monkeys’ decision-making may be described with a strategy-based hierarchical decision-making model with over 90% accuracy. The model reveals that the monkeys adopted the take-the-best heuristic by using one dominating strategy for their decision-making at a time and formed compound strategies by assembling the basis strategies to handle particular game situations. With the model, the computationally complex but fully quantifiable Pac-Man behavior paradigm provides a new approach to understanding animals’ advanced cognition.

One-Sentence Summary Macaque monkeys play Pac-Man with strategy-based hierarchical decision making, a cognitive capacity hitherto unknown in them.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • 1 Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, System Neuroscience Building, Rm 302, 320 Yueyang Rd, Shanghai, China

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted October 04, 2021.
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Monkey Plays Pac-Man with Compositional Strategies and Hierarchical Decision-making
Qianli Yang, Zhongqiao Lin, Wenyi Zhang, Jianshu Li, Xiyuan Chen, Jiaqi Zhang, Tianming Yang
bioRxiv 2021.10.02.462713; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.02.462713
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Monkey Plays Pac-Man with Compositional Strategies and Hierarchical Decision-making
Qianli Yang, Zhongqiao Lin, Wenyi Zhang, Jianshu Li, Xiyuan Chen, Jiaqi Zhang, Tianming Yang
bioRxiv 2021.10.02.462713; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.02.462713

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