Fig. 1.

The influence of recent outcomes onto choice, for different learning rates. Shown is the influence of the outcomes received on the last seven trials for making a choice on the current trial, for three different learning rates. Red shows a hypothetical participant with a learning rate of 0.9. This learner updates strongly based on recent outcomes. There is a strong influence of the outcome on the previous trial (n − 1), and a weaker influence of the outcome received two trials back (n − 2) but virtually no influence of earlier outcomes. A learner with smaller learning rates, here shown for 0.5 (grey) or 0.2 (blue), shows increasingly longer-lasting influences of outcomes received on trials further back from the current trial.