Salience as an emergent property

Federica Alberti, Robert Sugden and Kei Tsutsui

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2012, vol. 82, issue 2, 379-394

Abstract: We offer an evolutionary model of the emergence of concepts of salience through similarity-based learning. When an individual faces a new decision problem, she chooses an action that she perceives as similar to actions that, when chosen in similar previous problems, led to favourable outcomes. If some similarities are more reliably perceived than others, this process will favour the emergence of conventions that are defined in terms of reliably perceived similarities. We discuss experimental evidence of learning in recurrent play of similar but not identical pure coordination games.

Keywords: Salience; Focal point; Emergent property; Similarity; Coordination game (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C73 C91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Salience as an emergent property (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:82:y:2012:i:2:p:379-394

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.10.016

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