Reference-point dependent reinforcement learning in humans and rats
Abstract
Rewards and punishments in reinforcement learning are encoded in both absolute and relative manners. Reference-point dependence, a valuation bias shared by adaptation-level and prospect theories, is often proposed as the computational mechanism underlying relative value encoding. However, the extent to which these behavioural and computational mechanisms are conserved across species remains to be fully understood. We therefore designed parallel reinforcement learning tasks in humans and rats to examine referencepoint dependence across species. Behavioural analyses showed robust relative value encoding in both species, and computational modelling confirmed that reference-point dependence reliably accounts for behaviour in humans and rats. Despite these major similarities between species, some differences in behavioural and modelling parameters were observed. Overall, our study demonstrates that relative value encoding is a robust feature of reinforcement learning that is conserved across humans and rats.
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BibTeX
@article{ferguson2026referencepoint,
title = {{Reference-point dependent reinforcement learning in humans and rats}},
author = {Lachlan A Ferguson and Magdalena Soukupova and Sebastien Bouret and Stefano Palminteri and Shauna L Parkes},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-73623-x},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05774521v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Reference-point dependent reinforcement learning in humans and rats
AU - Lachlan A Ferguson
AU - Magdalena Soukupova
AU - Sebastien Bouret
AU - Stefano Palminteri
AU - Shauna L Parkes
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-73623-x
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05774521v1
AB - Rewards and punishments in reinforcement learning are encoded in both absolute and relative manners. Reference-point dependence, a valuation bias shared by adaptation-level and prospect theories, is often proposed as the computational mechanism underlying relative value encoding. However, the extent to which these behavioural and computational mechanisms are conserved across species remains to be fully understood. We therefore designed parallel reinforcement learning tasks in humans and rats to examine referencepoint dependence across species. Behavioural analyses showed robust relative value encoding in both species, and computational modelling confirmed that reference-point dependence reliably accounts for behaviour in humans and rats. Despite these major similarities between species, some differences in behavioural and modelling parameters were observed. Overall, our study demonstrates that relative value encoding is a robust feature of reinforcement learning that is conserved across humans and rats.
SN - 2041-1723
SN - 2041-1723
ER -