Decision-Making Strategies

In this project, I study how the use of different learning strategies changes across development.

I am interested in why children and older adults tend to converge on simpler learning strategies and which neural mechanisms underlie age differences in learning.

Part of the work done for this project is currently submitted for publication. View the preprint here. In this publication, we examined if reducing the demands on representing the decision-making environment allows older adults to engage in model-based (i.e., goal-directed) decision-making. Our results reveal that they do not engage in significantly more model-based learning due to their difficulty representing the decision environment.

Future goals of this project is to examine intermediate decision-making strategies such as Successor Representation (SR) and to establish whether replay mechanisms might support the adaptive use of SR and other different learning strategies.

Alexa Ruel
Alexa Ruel
Post doctoral Researcher

My research interests include decision-making strategies and cognitive control changes during healthy aging.

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