Champ versus Chump: Viewing an Opponent’s Face Engages Attention but Not Reward Systems

Ralph S Redden,Olave E Krigolson,Chad C Williams,Cameron D Hassall,Greg A Gagliardi

doi:10.3390/g12030062

Ralph S Redden, Olave E Krigolson + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/g12030062

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Abstract

When we play competitive games, the opponents that we face act as predictors of the outcome of the game. For instance, if you are an average chess player and you face a Grandmaster, you anticipate a loss. Framed in a reinforcement learning perspective, our opponents can be thought of as predictors of rewards and punishments. The present study investigates whether facing an opponent would be processed as a reward or punishment depending on the level of difficulty the opponent poses. Participants played Rock, Paper, Scissors against three computer opponents while electroencephalographic (EEG) data was recorded. In a key manipulation, one opponent (HARD) was programmed to win most often, another (EASY) was made to lose most often, and the third (AVERAGE) had equiprobable outcomes of wins, losses, and ties. Through practice, participants learned to anticipate the relative challenge of a game based on the opponent they were facing that round. An analysis of our EEG data revealed that winning outcomes elicited a reward positivity relative to losing outcomes. Interestingly, our analysis of the predictive cues (i.e., the opponents’ faces) demonstrated that attentional engagement (P3a) was contextually sensitive to anticipated game difficulty. As such, our results for the predictive cue are contrary to what one might expect for a reinforcement model associated with predicted reward, but rather demonstrate that the neural response to the predictive cue was encoding the level of engagement with the opponent as opposed to value relative to the anticipated outcome.

Highlights

In head-to-head competition, knowing one’s opponent can offer strategic advantage.For instance, in the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” after learning from previous losses Beth Harmon uses her knowledge of her opponent on her way to victory againstChess Master Vasily Borgov
To capture the peak of this difference wave, we focused on electrode FCz, a known scalp location of the reward positivity [8]
We argue that the use of simple games in neuroscience sometimes involves methodological compromise [8]

Summary

Introduction

In head-to-head competition, knowing one’s opponent can offer strategic advantage.For instance, in the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” after learning from previous losses Beth Harmon uses her knowledge of her opponent on her way to victory againstChess Master Vasily Borgov. In head-to-head competition, knowing one’s opponent can offer strategic advantage. In the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” after learning from previous losses Beth Harmon uses her knowledge of her opponent on her way to victory against. Knowing one’s opponent can indicate the likelihood of a favorable (or unfavorable) outcome. Consider the expectations of a tennis player about to face 23-time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams, versus a match against a random opponent from a neighboring tennis club. We sought to use electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the cognitive processes underlying competitive games. While not as skill based as the aforementioned examples, given some of the limiting methodological factors of EEG, we decided to explore real-world competitive contexts by using simple games

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