SSP Forum: Catherine Alexandra Hartley (Wasow Visiting Scholar) on learning development

The
Symbolic Systems Forum
(community sessions of SYMSYS 280 - Symbolic Systems Research Seminar)
presents

Understanding the development of reward learning through the lens of meta-learning

Catherine Alexandra Hartley ('99)
Psychology Department, New York University
Thomas A. Wasow Visiting Scholar in Symbolic Systems

Monday, May 18, 2026
12;00-1:20 pm PT (lunch served at noon, talk starts at 12:30pm)
Computing and Data Science Building, Room E160
In-person event, not recorded

Note: Lunch is provided, if pre-ordered, only for members of SYMSYS 280 and guest speakers, but others are welcome to bring a lunch and eat during the presentation.

ABSTRACT:

A mechanistic account of how our environments shape how we learn is critical for understanding individual differences in behavior. In this talk, I will propose that specific statistics of experienced environments shape reward learning across multiple nested timescales via a meta-learning process, focusing on the example of environmental controllability. The controllability of positive or negative experiences has long been recognized as a critical factor determining their impact on subsequent behavior. Building on an extensive body of work in animal models, I will argue that humans use estimates of environmental controllability to calibrate motivated behavior along a continuum ranging from proactive (‘what can I do in this environment?’) to reactive ('what will this environment do to me?’). I will present studies suggesting that the controllability of motivationally significant outcomes not only modulates an individual's balance between proactive and reactive reward learning strategies over the short timescales of experimental tasks, but also informs individual differences in reward-guided behavior over the course of development. I will discuss the computational processes and neural mechanisms that may underpin this meta-learning process, and how such environmental adaptation may modulate individual vulnerability to psychopathology.