Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34984213›Full record

ArticleCurrent opinion in behavioral sciences2021

What do Reinforcement Learning Models Measure? Interpreting Model Parameters in Cognition and Neuroscience.

Maria K Eckstein, Linda Wilbrecht, Anne G E Collins

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing 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

45 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Feasible cognition requires latent state.Biological cybernetics · 2026
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  6. Article
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  8. Article
  9. Review
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  11. Anhedonic Traits Do Not Impair Performance in a 3-Arm Bandit Task.Computational psychiatry (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Data-driven equation discovery reveals nonlinear reinforcement learning in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
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

3 authors.

Maria K EcksteinDepartment of Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way West, Berkeley, 94720, CA, USA.
Linda WilbrechtDepartment of Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way West, Berkeley, 94720, CA, USA.
Anne G E CollinsDepartment of Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way West, Berkeley, 94720, CA, USA.

Funding

Towards a Unified Framework for Dopamine Signaling in the StriatumU19NS113201 · NINDS · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI DATTA, SANDEEP R · 2019 to 2023
$18.7M
The neural computations supporting hierarchical reinforcement learningR01MH119383 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI COLLINS, ANNE G.E. · 2019 to 2023
$1.9M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH119383NINDS NIH HHS U19 NS113201
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a concept that has been invaluable to fields including machine learning, neuroscience, and cognitive science. However, what RL entails differs between fields, leading to difficulties when interpreting and translating findings. After laying out these differences, this paper focuses on cognitive (neuro)science to discuss how we as a field might over-interpret RL modeling results. We too often assume-implicitly-that modeling results

Indexed as

Computational ModelingGeneralizabilityInterpretabilityReinforcement Learning

Identifiers

PMID34984213
PMCPMC8722372

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.