Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31074743›Full record

ArticleeLife2019

Computational mechanisms of curiosity and goal-directed exploration.

Philipp Schwartenbeck, Johannes Passecker, Tobias U Hauser, Thomas Hb FitzGerald, Martin Kronbichler, Karl J Friston

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
83citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

83 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Active inference and artificial reasoning.Nature communications · 2026
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  9. Review
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  13. Born to act: Deferred action and desire as active inference.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. SPM-30 years and beyond.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025
    Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Philipp SchwartenbeckWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-8943-9965
Johannes PasseckerDepartment for Cognitive Neurobiology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.ORCID 0000-0002-4366-2691
Tobias U HauserWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-7997-8137
Thomas Hb FitzGeraldWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Martin KronbichlerCentre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
Karl J FristonWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-7984-8909

Funding

European Research Council Starting Grant 804701Wellcome 088130/Z/09/ZWellcome 211155/Z/18/ZWellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Successful behaviour depends on the right balance between maximising reward and soliciting information about the world. Here, we show how different types of information-gain emerge when casting behaviour as surprise minimisation. We present two distinct mechanisms for goal-directed exploration that express separable profiles of active sampling to reduce uncertainty. 'Hidden state' exploration motivates agents to sample unambiguous observations to accurately infer the (hidden) state of the world. Conversely, 'model parameter' exploration, compels agents to sample outcomes associated with high uncertainty, if they are informative for their representation of the task structure. We illustrate the emergence of these types of information-gain, termed active inference and active learning, and show how these forms of exploration induce distinct patterns of 'Bayes-optimal' behaviour. Our findings provide a computational framework for understanding how distinct levels of uncertainty systematically affect the exploration-exploitation trade-off in decision-making.

Indexed as

Exploratory BehaviorModels, NeurologicalAlgorithmsAnimalsComputer SimulationHumansLearningactive inferenceactive learningcuriosityexploitationexplorationintrinsic motivationneurosciencenone

Identifiers

PMID31074743
PMCPMC6510535

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.