{"about":{"site":"https://codewithpapers.app","non_affiliation":"Code with Papers and Syntology are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Papers with Code, Meta, or the pwc-archive mirror.","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","attribution":"https://codewithpapers.app/attribution","modified":"archive material modified by Syntology; see the attribution page"},"url":"/paper/mathematical-model-bridges-disparate","title":"Mathematical model bridges disparate timescales of lifelong learning","arxiv_id":"2206.03954","date":"2022-06-08","proceeding":null,"authors":["Mingzhen Lu","Tyler Marghetis","Vicky Chuqiao Yang"],"abstract":"Lifelong learning occurs on timescales ranging from minutes to decades. People can lose themselves in a new skill, practicing for hours until exhausted. And they can pursue mastery over days or decades, perhaps abandoning old skills entirely to seek out new challenges. A full understanding of learning requires an account that integrates these timescales. Here, we present a minimal quantitative model that unifies the nested timescales of learning. Our dynamical model recovers classic accounts of skill acquisition, and describes how learning emerges from moment-to-moment dynamics of motivation, fatigue, and work, while also situated within longer-term dynamics of skill selection, mastery, and abandonment. We apply this model to explore the benefits and pitfalls of a variety of training regimes and to characterize individual differences in motivation and skill development. Our model connects previously disparate timescales -- and the subdisciplines that typically study each timescale in isolation -- to offer a unified account of the timecourse of skill acquisition.","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.03954v1","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.03954v1.pdf","source":{"archive":"pwc-archive (Hugging Face), CC BY-SA 4.0","snapshot":"2025-07-28","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","row_kind":"abstracts"},"code_links":[{"paper_slug":"mathematical-model-bridges-disparate","repo_url":"https://github.com/vc-yang/multiscale_learning_model","is_official":1,"mentioned_in_paper":1,"mentioned_in_github":0,"framework":"none","reach":null}],"tasks":[{"task_slug":"lifelong-learning","task_name":"Lifelong learning"},{"task_slug":"model","task_name":"model"}],"methods":[],"datasets_introduced":[],"methods_introduced":[],"results":[],"syntology":{"syntology_url":null,"atlas_url":null,"mcp":null,"developers":"https://syntology.ai/developers"},"arxiv_metadata":null,"syntology_extracted_results":null}