Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31770715›Full record

ReviewDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2019

Reinforcement learning across development: What insights can we draw from a decade of research?

Kate Nussenbaum, Catherine A Hartley

Erratum issuedAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 99 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
99citing 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

99 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
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  9. Learning as the unifying mechanism of psychedelic action.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Prefrontal cortex development and its implications in mental illness.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

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

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Kate NussenbaumNew York University, United States.
Catherine A HartleyNew York University, United States. Electronic address: cate@nyu.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The past decade has seen the emergence of the use of reinforcement learning models to study developmental change in value-based learning. It is unclear, however, whether these computational modeling studies, which have employed a wide variety of tasks and model variants, have reached convergent conclusions. In this review, we examine whether the tuning of model parameters that govern different aspects of learning and decision-making processes vary consistently as a function of age, and what neurocognitive developmental changes may account for differences in these parameter estimates across development. We explore whether patterns of developmental change in these estimates are better described by differences in the extent to which individuals adapt their learning processes to the statistics of different environments, or by more static learning biases that emerge across varied contexts. We focus specifically on learning rates and inverse temperature parameter estimates, and find evidence that from childhood to adulthood, individuals become better at optimally weighting recent outcomes during learning across diverse contexts and less exploratory in their value-based decision-making. We provide recommendations for how these two possibilities - and potential alternative accounts - can be tested more directly to build a cohesive body of research that yields greater insight into the development of core learning processes.

Indexed as

Reinforcement, PsychologyAdolescentAdultChildDecision MakingFemaleHumansLearningMaleYoung AdultComputational modelingDecision makingReinforcement learning

Identifiers

PMID31770715
PMCPMC6974916

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.