Self-control can be defined as choosing a large delayed reward over a small immediate reward, while precommitment is the making of a choice with the specific aim of denying oneself future choices [10]. The self can be viewed as a goal directed hierarchical system, where goals are internally specified according to value systems that are developed through experience [14]. Given a situation, the presence of more than one established value system can give rise to interpersonal conflicts. Such conflicts can refer to self-control problems where people might attempt to overcome them by applying precommitment [1, 11]. A computational model of interpersonal conflict is proposed where we implement two spiking neural networks as two players, learning simultaneously but independently, competing in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) game. Learning links behaviour to the synaptic level by reinforcing stochastic synaptic transmission [15]. An interpretation of the IPD is that it demonstrates interpersonal conflict [5]. It is possible, Kavka suggests, that such inner conflicts are resolved as if they were a result of strategic interaction among rational subagents [5]. The structure of the sub-agents' value systems is investigated with respect to the cooperative outcome of the game, which corresponds to the self controlled behaviour. The results seem to suggest that the degree of cooperation in the IPD depends on the structure of the payoff matrix. The relationship between precommitment behaviour and the value systems is also investigated and compared to our previous work [3]. In fact, with a technique resembling the precommitment effect, whereby the payoffs for the dilemma cases in the IPD payoff matrix are differentially biased (increased or decreased) [3], cooperation seems to be enhanced as the differential bias is increased.
展开▼
