DOES LEARNING OCCUR IN ONE-SHOT, NON-COOPERATIVE GAMES?

Learning to learn is a basic foundation of life and necessary for evolution. The ability to show the existence of learning can at times be difficult in one-shot, non-cooperative games. The ability to transfer knowledge from one situation to another is an indication of how much one actually learns and how it is applied. The purpose of this paper is to show the existence of learning in this type of game by using the vertical checkers game “Connect 4”. By looking at the difference in won-loss records between two tournaments and the distribution of the scores, we can show that learning has occurred when teams have a greater degree of parity and that average number of wins increases as the range of wins decreases