用现代语义嵌入模拟记忆搜索,简单随机游走就能逼近人类最优觅食行为。
Optimal Foraging in Memory Retrieval: Evaluating Random Walks and Metropolis-Hastings Sampling in Modern Semantic Spaces
- 在高维语义空间中用随机游走模拟记忆检索过程。
- 结果符合边际价值定理,与人类行为高度一致。
- 复杂采样方法反而不如简单游走,适合认知建模研究者。
人类记忆检索常表现出类似生态觅食的行为模式,即在语义相关概念的‘区域’中持续探索,直到收益下降再转向新区域。最优觅食遵循边际价值定理(MVT)。尽管人类行为数据表明语义流畅性任务中存在觅食型模式,但现代高维嵌入空间是否能支持算法复现此类行为仍不清楚。本文利用最先进的嵌入模型与已有语义流畅性数据发现:在这些嵌入空间中进行随机游走,可生成与人类行为一致的结果,符合MVT。令人意外的是,引入本应更优的自适应Metropolis-Hastings采样,却无法再现人类行为。这挑战了‘复杂采样机制更优’的假设,表明恰当结构的嵌入配合简单采样即可实现近似最优觅食动态。该结果支持Hills(2012)的观点,而非Abbott(2015),证明现代嵌入无需复杂接受准则即可近似人类记忆觅食行为。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Human memory retrieval often resembles ecological foraging where animals search for food in a patchy environment. Optimal foraging means following the Marginal Value Theorem (MVT), in which individuals exploit a patch of semantically related concepts until it becomes less rewarding and then switch to a new cluster. While human behavioral data suggests foraging-like patterns in semantic fluency tasks, it remains unclear whether modern high-dimensional embedding spaces provide representations that allow algorithms to match observed human behavior. Using state-of-the-art embeddings and prior semantic fluency data, I find that random walks on these embedding spaces produce results consistent with optimal foraging and the MVT. Surprisingly, introducing Metropolis-Hastings sampling, an adaptive algorithm expected to model strategic acceptance and rejection of new clusters, does not produce results consistent with human behavior. These findings challenge the assumption that more complex sampling mechanisms inherently lead to better cognitive models of memory retrieval. Instead, they show that appropriately structured embeddings, even with simple sampling, can produce near-optimal foraging dynamics. This supports the perspective of Hills (2012) rather than Abbott (2015), demonstrating that modern embeddings can approximate human memory foraging without relying on complex acceptance criteria.
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