Salience as an emergent property

We offer an evolutionary model of the emergence of concepts of salience through similarity-based learning. When an individual faces a new decision problem, she chooses an action that she perceives as similar to actions that, when chosen in similar previous problems, led to favourable outcomes. If some similarities are more reliably perceived than others, this process will favour the emergence of conventions that are defined in terms of reliably perceived similarities. We discuss experimental evidence of learning in recurrent play of similar but not identical pure coordination games.

► We explain shared perceptions of salience as emergent properties of recurrent play of coordination games.
► Individuals tend to choose actions that are perceived as similar to previously successful actions.
► Some similarities are more reliably perceived than others.
► So similarity-based learning favours conventions that are defined in terms of reliably perceived similarities.
► We discuss experimental evidence of learning in coordination games that are similar but not identical to one another.