ReviewBehavioural processes2019
Uncovering the 'state': Tracing the hidden state representations that structure learning and decision-making.
Review in Behavioural processes, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cocaine disrupts hidden states in the brain.eLife · 2026Article
- Orbitofrontal-Hippocampal State Coding Dynamics during Reversal Learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- The devilish details affecting TDRL models in dopamine research.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025Review
- Integrating and fragmenting memories under stress and alcohol.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Minimal cross-trial generalization in learning the representation of an odor-guided choice task.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Context-sensitive valuation and learning.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2021Article
- Learning task-state representations.Nature neuroscience · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We review the abstract concept of a 'state' - an internal representation posited by reinforcement learning theories to be used by an agent, whether animal, human or artificial, to summarize the features of the external and internal environment that are relevant for future behavior on a particular task. Armed with this summary representation, an agent can make decisions and perform actions to interact effectively with the world. Here, we review recent findings from the neurobiological and behavioral literature to ask: 'what is a state?' with respect to the internal representations that organize learning and decision making across a range of tasks. We find that state representations include information beyond a straightforward summary of the immediate cues in the environment, providing timing or contextual information from the recent or more distant past, which allows these additional factors to influence decision making and other goal-directed behaviors in complex and perhaps unexpected ways.
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Registered trials
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.