Information-theoretic cost of decision-making in joint action

We investigate the information processing cost relative to utility, associated with joint action in dyadic decision-making. Our approach, built on the Relevant Information formalism, combines Shannon’s Information Theory and Markov Decision Processes for modelling dyadic interaction, where two agents with independent controllers move an object together with fully redundant control in a grid world. Results show that increasing collaboration relaxes the pressure on required information intake and vice versa, antagonistic behavior takes a higher toll on information bandwidth. In this trade-off the particular embodiment of the environment plays a key role, demonstrated in simulations with informationally parsimonious optimal controllers.