Converging to a player model in Monte-Carlo Tree Search

Player models allow search algorithms to account for differences in agent behavior according to player´s preferences and goals. However, it is often not until the first actions are taken that an agent can begin assessing which models are relevant to its current opponent. This paper investigates the integration of belief distributions over player models in the Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm. We describe a method of updating belief distributions through leveraging information sampled during the MCTS. We then characterize the effect of tuning parameters of the MCTS to convergence of belief distributions. Evaluation of this approach is done in comparison with value iteration for an iterated version of the prisoner´s dilemma problem. We show that for a sufficient quantity of iterations, our approach converges to the correct model faster than the same model under value iteration.