Naïve creature learns to cross a highway in a simulated CA-like environment

We present a model of simple cognitive agents, called “creatures”, and their learning process, a type of “social observational learning”, that is each creature learns from the behaviour of other creatures. The creatures may experience fear and/or desire, and are capable of evaluating if a strategy has been applied successfully and of applying this strategy again with small changes to a similar but new situation. The creatures are born as “tabula rasa”; i.e. without built-in knowledge base of their environment and as they learn they build this knowledge base. We study learning outcomes of a population of such creatures when they are learning how to safely cross various types of highways. The highways are implemented as a modified Nagel-Schreckenberg model, a CA based highway model, and each creature is provided with mechanism to reason to cross safely the highway. We present selected simulation results and their analysis.