Parameter recovery

To make sure that the parameters are interpretable, we performed a parameter recovery analysis. For each parameter, we took four values, equally spread, within a reasonable parameter range (σ0=0.5,2.5,Q0=1,6,ϵ=0,0.5,η=[0,5]). All parameters but Q0 were free to vary as a function of the horizon. We simulated behaviour with one artificial agent for each 4⁷ combinations using a new trial for each. The model was fitted using MAP estimation (cf. Parameter estimation) and analysed how well the generative parameters (generating parameters in Figure 5) correlated with the recovered ones (fitted parameters in Figure 5) using Pearson correlation (summarised in Figure 5c). In addition to the correlation we examined the spread (Figure 4—figure supplement 3) of the recovered parameters. Overall the parameters were well recoverable.