Latent Learning Progress Drives Autonomous Goal Selection in Human Reinforcement Learning

Humans are autotelic agents who learn by setting and pursuing their own goals. However, the precise mechanisms guiding human goal selection remain unclear. Learning progress, typically measured as the observed change in performance, can provide a valuable signal for goal selection in both humans and artificial agents. We hypothesize that human choices of goals may also be driven by latent learning progress, which humans can estimate through knowledge of their actions and the environment – even without experiencing immediate changes in performance. To test this hypothesis, we designed a hierarchical reinforcement learning task in which human participants (N 175) repeatedly chose their own goals and learned goal-conditioned policies.