Enhanced winnings in a mixed-ability population playing a minority game

TL;DR

This paper investigates how mixed populations of adaptive agents with varying memory sizes perform in a minority game, revealing that such diversity can lead to higher average winnings and success rates than homogeneous groups.

Contribution

It demonstrates that mixed-ability populations can outperform pure populations in a minority game, emphasizing the role of memory in agent success.

Findings

Mixed populations can achieve higher average winnings.

Large-memory agents can have success rates above 50%.

Memory is crucial for the observed performance improvements.

Abstract

We study a mixed population of adaptive agents with small and large memories, competing in a minority game. If the agents are sufficiently adaptive, we find that the average winnings per agent can exceed that obtainable in the corresponding pure populations. In contrast to the pure population, the average success rate of the large-memory agents can be greater than 50 percent. The present results are not reproduced if the agents are fed a random history, thereby demonstrating the importance of memory in this system.