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Riddhi Jain

DPhil Candidate

  • Funded by VERSES AI.

Behaviourally and computationally investigating how individuals with varying levels of depression learn associative and causal relationships and their role as agents in a multi-agent environment.

Research Projects

Understanding agency is crucial for comprehending human action and mental health, particularly as a reduced sense of agency is a primary symptom of major depressive disorder. Our research investigates how agency is acquired and potentially lost in multi-agent environments among individuals with varying levels of depression, highlighting individual differences in agency perception. We have designed two sets of studies to examine how individuals with varying levels of depression learn and perceive contingencies between cues/actions and outcomes. We explore statistical, associative, and Bayesian (including active inference) models to explain our findings. 

In one set of studies, we designed a novel multi-agent task where participants voluntarily pressed a button over multiple trials and observed a simulated agent doing the same. Participants then reported how much control both agents had over a common outcome. Experimental conditions varied which agent (Self or Other) had control and the type of control (positive/excitatory, negative/inhibitory, or none).

In the other set of studies, participants observed a stream of trials where cues and outcomes might co-occur, appear separately, or be absent together, sometimes with non-target stimuli. This assesses how individuals with varying levels of depression perceive the absence of target stimuli and the presence of non-target stimuli.

BIOGRAPHY

I was born and raised in Hong Kong. While I obtained my undergraduate degree (in psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science; with first honours) at The University of Hong Kong, I worked at the Experimental Psychopathology Laboratory (with Dr. Tom Barry, now at the University of Bath) and Psychopathology, Affective Neuroscience & Decision Making Laboratory as a senior research assistant and laboratory coordinator at both labs. 

CONFERENCES

  • "Modelling Agency Perception in Depression Using Active Inference: A Multi-Agent Behavioural Study"; International Workshop on Active Inference; Oxford; September 2024
  • "Multi-agent Agential Learning and Depression"; Associative Learning Symposium; Gregynog; May 2024
  • "A Model of Agential Learning Using Active Inference"; International Workshop on Active Inference; Belgium; September 2023
  • "How are empty trials processed when learning the association between stimuli?"; Associative Learning Symposium; Gregynog; April 2023
  • "Can attentional training diminish fear generalization to prevent the emergence of anxiety problems and reduce anxiety symptoms?"; Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA); Chicago; March 2019