Using recurrent neural network to estimate irreducible stochasticity in human choice-behavior

Theoretical computational models are widely used to describe latent cognitive processes. However, these models do not equally explain data across participants, with some individuals showing a bigger predictive gap than others. In the current study, we examined the use of theory-independent models, specifically recurrent neural networks (RNN), to classify the source of a predictive gap in the observed data of a single individual. This approach aims to identify whether the low predictability of behavioral data is mainly due to noisy decision-making or miss-specification of the theoretical model. First, we used computer simulation in the context of reinforcement learning to demonstrate that RNNs can be used to identify model miss-specification in simulated agents with varying degrees of behavioral noise. Specifically, both prediction performance and the number of RNN training epochs (i.e., the point of early stopping) can be used to estimate the amount of stochasticity in the data. Second, we applied our approach to an empirical dataset where the actions of low IQ participants, compared with high IQ participants, showed lower predictability by a well-known theoretical model (i.e., Daw’s hybrid model for the two-step task). Both the predictive gap and the point of early stopping of the RNN suggested that model miss-specification is similar across individuals. This led us to a provisional conclusion that low IQ subjects are mostly noisier compared to their high IQ peers, rather than being more miss-specified by the theoretical model. We discuss the implications and limitations of this approach, considering the growing literature in both theoretical and data-driven computational modeling in decision-making science.