How experiencing uncertainty shapes the development of learning and decision-making

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Many people grow up in highly uncertain environments. Some may have no secure access to food when growing up or grow up in environments in which their physical or mental well-being is unpredictably at risk. But even under more fortunate circumstances, most individuals experience some uncertainty about whether their needs can be met during development. To experience and successfully navigate those uncertainties poses a major developmental challenge, and coping with uncertainty is a hallmark of adaptive functioning as an adult. However, not much is known about how uncertainty impacts development. This symposium thus combines work in rodents, humans and mathematical modelling to illustrate how the experience of adverse and normative uncertainty in critical developmental periods shapes learning, decision-making, and associated neural and computational mechanisms.
The first paper shows how uncertainty in food availability during adolescence sensitises the dopamine system of rodents and impacts computational learning mechanisms in adult individuals. The second paper is a longitudinal study showing how volatile caregiving practices are associated with juvenile externalising behaviours. The final paper shows how different developmental stages are related to different uncertainties and presents a theory of how changes in the uncertainty of the environment affect risk-taking behaviour on the way to adulthood. Together we will discuss the extent to which adaptations to uncertainty constitute a critical mediator of developmental outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Simon Ciranka, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Discussant

• Wouter Van den Bos, University of Amsterdam

Individual Presentations

• Uncertainty in development changes responses to uncertainty in adulthood: a study of developmental food insecurity and decision making in mice - Presenting Author: Linda Wilbrecht, UC Berkeley

• Focusing on Parenting Variability in Relation to Adolescent Externalizing Symptoms - Presenting Author: Jamie L Hanson, University of Pittsburgh; Esther Palacios-Barrios; Kelly R Barry, University of Houston

• Adolescent risk-taking in the context of exploration and social influence - Presenting Author: Simon Ciranka, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Wouter Van den Bos, University of Amsterdam