QUESTION 1

1. The authors use      different distributions of rewards to study learning in monkeys. In what      sort of distribution are the tails (high and low values) approximately as      common as the average?

normal

gaussian

uniform

Bernoulli

QUESTION 2

1. What objective,      outwardly visible sign did researchers use to assess monkey interest?

pupil diameter

screeching

a   “thumbs-up” sign

poop flinging

QUESTION 3

1. What reward condition      was associated with faster learning in monkeys?

common reward   prediciton errors

rare reward   prediction errors

large magnitudes of   reward changes

larger rewards

QUESTION 4

1. What does it mean that      “phasic dopamine responses code for reward prediction errors”?

QUESTION 5

1. What does it suggest that pupil diameter      was correlated with rare prediction      errors,but uncorrelated with common prediction      errors of the same magnitude?

QUESTION 6

1. What is the importance      of “anticipatory licking”?

QUESTION 7

1. Monkeys were given the      choice between a somewhat unpredicatable reward of juice, represented by      an image of a fractal, and what alternative? What was the alternative      represented by?

10 points   

QUESTION 8

1. In general, monkeys      learned to choose the fractal image when the expected reward from the      “safe” choice was _____

10 points   

QUESTION 9

1. Monkeys learned faster      when the unpredictable rewards followed a normal distribution (where      errors are relatively rare) as opposed to a uniform distribution (where      errors would be more common). What do the authors observe regarding the      activation of dopamine neurons to larger-than-expected rewards in normal      vs uniform distribution trials?

10 points   

QUESTION 10

1. When a reward is less      than expected, what happens with dopamine neurons? Is the distribution of      rewards in the learning exercise relevant to this?