Help me help you: A computational model for goal inference and action planning

Abstract

Helping is an inherently cooperative behavior, but the cognitive mechanisms underlying this behavior remain relatively underexplored. In this paper, we introduce a novel gamified paradigm for understanding a variety of cognitive behaviors associated with helping. Principals are assigned secret goals in a block-based grid (e.g., move all blue blocks to room C), and helpers can either pass their turn or make a move that could help the principal. We show that principals make useful and \textit{pragmatic} first moves and helpers accumulate evidence over time before initiating a helpful move. We also introduce a preliminary set of computational models based on recursive pragmatic inference and utility maximization that attempt to account for these behavioral findings.

How Do You Know That You Don't Know?

“…This awareness is crucial for being able to successfully interact with others and collaborate, not just as children, but at any age. For instance, being able to help another requires the helping person to know about the goal of the other person and the possible actions for achieving that goal (Kumar & Steyvers, 2022;Puig et al, 2020). Suppose you see a person leaving money on the table in a restaurant.…”