Coursemaster: Dr. Terry Lohrenz
Dates: Begins Tuesday February 7, 2005 at 10:30am
Much of the HNL's work focuses on how people learn and make decisions. Many of our paradigms center on economic decision making. The goal of this course will be to give students: 1) an introduction to the neo-classical theory of choice under uncertainty, expected utility theory, and two alternatives (Prospect Theory and Regret Theory); 2) an introduction to reinforcement learning theory; 3) an introduction to Bayesian inference.
Texts
- Utility Theory: The Economics of Risk and Time, Christian Gollier. Available online
- Reinforcement Learning. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. Sutton and Barto. Both are available on Amazon.com. Sutton and Barto is also available online.
- Bayesian Inference. Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms, D. MacKay, available online
Class Style: People attending the course will be expected to be prepared (i.e. have done the readings) for the class. Participation in class discussion is expected.
Presentations: Students will present a paper related to the content of the course, and will be expected to handle questions related to the content of the course.
Grades: Will be based on presentations and class participation.