Humans do not integrate new information objectively: outcomes carrying a positive affective
value and evidence confirming one's own prior belief are overweighed. Until recently …

Experiences affect mood, which in turn affects subsequent experiences. Recent studies
suggest two specific principles. First, mood depends on how recent reward outcomes differ …

Since its introduction, the reward prediction error theory of dopamine has explained a wealth
of empirical phenomena, providing a unifying framework for understanding the …

Understanding the brain requires us to answer both what the brain does, and how it does it.
Using a series of examples, I make the case that behavior is often more useful than …

In recent years, ideas from the computational field of reinforcement learning have
revolutionized the study of learning in the brain, famously providing new, precise theories of …

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate neural processes when
music gains reward value the first time it is heard. The degree of activity in the mesolimbic …

One of the most salient attributes of information is valence: whether a piece of news is good
or bad. Contrary to classic learning theories, which implicitly assume beliefs are adjusted …

Dopamine is implicated in adaptive behavior through reward prediction error (RPE) signals
that update value estimates. There is also accumulating evidence that animals in structured …

The past decade has seen the emergence of the use of reinforcement learning models to
study developmental change in value-based learning. It is unclear, however, whether these …

When forming and updating beliefs about future life outcomes, people tend to consider good
news and to disregard bad news. This tendency is assumed to support the optimism bias …