Simplicity versus adaptability: Understanding the balance between habitual and goal-directed behaviors

Scientists have proposed a new AI method in which systems of habitual and goal-directed behaviors learn to help each other. Through computer simulations that mimicked the exploration of a maze, the method quickly adapts to changing environments and also reproduced the behavior of humans and animals after they had been accustomed to a certain environment for a long time. The study not only paves the way for the development of systems that adapt quickly and reliably in the burgeoning field of AI, but also provides clues to how we make decisions in the fields of neuroscience and psychology.