Cs171 Hw1 Solutions
HW 1 - Solutions
cs171
1. (Exercise 2.3 from RN) For each of the following assertions, say whether it is true or false and support your answer with examples or counterexamples where appropriate.
(a) An agent that senses only partial information about the state cannot be perfectly rational. False. The vacuum-cleaning agent from Section 2.2.1 is rational but doesn’t observe the state of the square that is adjacent to it
(b) There exist task environments in which no pure reflex agent can behave rationally.
True. The card game Concentration or Memory is one. Anything where memory is required to do well will thwart a reflex agent.
(c) There exists a task environment in which every agent is rational. True. Consider a task environment in which all actions (including no action) give the same, equal reward (d) The input to an agent program is the same as the input to the agent function.
False. The input to a agent function is the percept history. The input to a agent program is only the current percept; it is up to the agent program to record any relevant history needed to make actions.
(e) Every agent function is implementable by some program/machine combination.
False. Consider an agent whose only action is to return an integer, and who perceives a bit each turn. It gains a point of performance if the integer returned matches the value of the entire bitstring perceived so far. Eventually, any agent program will fail because it will run out of memory.
(f) Suppose an agent selects its action uniformly at random from the set of possible actions. There exists a deterministic task environment in which this agent is rational. True. Again consider the ”all actions always give equal reward” case
(g) It is possible for a given agent to be perfectly rational in two distinct task environments. True. Consider two environments based on betting on the outcomes of a roll of two dice. In one environment, the dice are fair, in the other, the dice are biased to always give 3 and 4. The
cs171
1. (Exercise 2.3 from RN) For each of the following assertions, say whether it is true or false and support your answer with examples or counterexamples where appropriate.
(a) An agent that senses only partial information about the state cannot be perfectly rational. False. The vacuum-cleaning agent from Section 2.2.1 is rational but doesn’t observe the state of the square that is adjacent to it
(b) There exist task environments in which no pure reflex agent can behave rationally.
True. The card game Concentration or Memory is one. Anything where memory is required to do well will thwart a reflex agent.
(c) There exists a task environment in which every agent is rational. True. Consider a task environment in which all actions (including no action) give the same, equal reward (d) The input to an agent program is the same as the input to the agent function.
False. The input to a agent function is the percept history. The input to a agent program is only the current percept; it is up to the agent program to record any relevant history needed to make actions.
(e) Every agent function is implementable by some program/machine combination.
False. Consider an agent whose only action is to return an integer, and who perceives a bit each turn. It gains a point of performance if the integer returned matches the value of the entire bitstring perceived so far. Eventually, any agent program will fail because it will run out of memory.
(f) Suppose an agent selects its action uniformly at random from the set of possible actions. There exists a deterministic task environment in which this agent is rational. True. Again consider the ”all actions always give equal reward” case
(g) It is possible for a given agent to be perfectly rational in two distinct task environments. True. Consider two environments based on betting on the outcomes of a roll of two dice. In one environment, the dice are fair, in the other, the dice are biased to always give 3 and 4. The