PSYCH 140C Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Optimal Stopping, Travelling Salesman Problem, Minimum Spanning Tree
Document Summary
Variants of perceptual optimization problems: emerging area, many variants are being studied, different metrics, using obstacles, 3d environments. Individual differences in the kinds of problems people have to solve. Important neuropsychological test: connect dots in order, the answer to them never intersects themselves, partially tests peoples" a(cid:271)ilities to opti(cid:373)ize as they (cid:272)o(cid:373)plete it. Der zahlen-verbindungs test (zvt: trail making test requiring subjects to connect the circles in order, ~1 minute to complete, correlates moderately with more time-consuming measures of psychometric intelligence. Optimal stopping problem: prototypical optimal stopping problem, involves making a choice in a decision sequence under uncertainty, rules, you have to select the best from a known number of sequentially presented alternatives. If you wish to select an alternative you must do it at the time it is presented. Bandit problems: there are optimal ways to solve bandit problems but not as detailed/only on a general level. Psychology of bandit problems: complicated problem to optimize but can be optimized.
