We consider an incomplete information network game in which agents are only aware of the identity of their immediate neighbors. They form beliefs about the links of their neighbors (the rest of the network) and play a linear-quadratic effort game to maximize interim payoffs. We establish the existence and uniqueness of Bayesian-Nash equilibria in pure strategies. In equilibrium, agents use local knowledge of their direct connections to make inferences about the complementarity strength of their actions with other agents given by their updated beliefs regarding their walks in the network. Using this and an example we show that under incomplete information, besides network architecture, agent identity plays a crucial role in determining strategic behavior. We also characterize equilibrium behavior under different forms of ex-ante prior beliefs like uniform priors, Erdos-Renyi network generation, and homophilic linkage. Not surprisingly, uniform priors provide similar results similar to degree-based models of incomplete information.

Deciding between apples and oranges has been an age-old question not just for hungry shoppers but within the field of decision-making research. However, very rarely have researchers considered the possibility to reject either and move on to the next shelf. I have previously argued that such a sequential decision making framework is not just essential for understanding foraging animals, but also ecological, real life, behaviour in humans^1,2. While it is intuitive that real life decision strategies require temporally extended coherent behaviours² and rely on prospection, maintained motivation and sequential adaptation, those cognitive and neural processes remain poorly understand. In the first part of my talk I will present our recent cognitive model for sequential search decisions and its underlying neural dynamics³. In the second part I will further expand into another important element of sustained and sequential behaviours, i.e. intrinsic motivation. In particular, I will focus on the circuits fluctuating with motivation to continue pursuing the current task instead of disengaging, showing task general as well as causal evidence. Lastly, I will talk about ongoing work on sequential incremental goal pursuit and how the nature of decision-making changes with goal progress neurally and behaviourally as participants assess whether to give into temptation or frustration.

Sacha Kramer

Luisa Lorè (Uni of Innsbruck)