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Prospect utility with hyperbolic tangent function

delete2025-05-30
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P
Patrick Adjei
S
Santiago Gomez-Rosero *
M
Miriam A. M. Capretz
DOI:10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109440delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
One branch of safety in reinforcement learning is through integrating risk sensitivity within the Markov Decision Process framework. The objective is to mitigate low-probability events that could lead to severe negative outcomes. Eliminating such risky events is usually done by incorporating a utility function on the expected return; therefore, reshaping the reward structures according to the risk levels associated with different outcomes. The temporal difference learning algorithm can be modified with a utility to capture risk. Notably, such utility functions are either convex or concave depending on the desired risk behavior. Given the outcome space and depending on the risk-sensitivity mode, concave utilities may promote risk-averse behavior and convex utilities may encourage risk-seeking strategies. Such function structure is demonstrated in Prospect Theory, and this motivates a novel formulation using the hyperbolic tangent function called PTanh. Using PTanh, experiments are performed to assess the effect of the diminishing marginal property on the risk-averse policies. It is concluded that there is a correlation between the marginal and selecting the risk-averse parameters. The marginals influence the effectiveness of the averse policies. When the marginals are considered, PTanh can demonstrate better results in terms of a ratio of average reward per prohibited state rate. Furthermore, using empirical evidence, the policy experiments shown with PTanh generalize to other utilities of the Prospect Shape.
Keywords:
Risk-sensitivity
Reliability and risk analysis
Reinforcement learning
Temporal difference
Prospect theory utility function
Hyperbolic tangent function
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Journal

International Journal of Approximate Reasoning cover
International Journal of Approximate Reasoning
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Western Univ
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