title: Reward and punishment act as distinct factors in guiding behavior.
abstract: Behavior rests on the experience of reinforcement and punishment. It has been unclear whether reinforcement and punishment act as oppositely valenced components of a single behavioral factor, or whether these two kinds of outcomes play fundamentally distinct behavioral roles. To this end, we varied the magnitude of a reward or a penalty experienced following a choice using monetary tokens. The outcome of each trial was independent of the outcome of the previous trial, which enabled us to isolate and study the effect on behavior of each outcome magnitude in single trials. We found that a reward led to a repetition of the previous choice, whereas a penalty led to an avoidance of the previous choice. Surprisingly, the effects of the reward magnitude and the penalty magnitude revealed a pronounced asymmetry. The choice repetition effect of a reward scaled with the magnitude of the reward. In a marked contrast, the avoidance effect of a penalty was flat, not influenced by the magnitude of the penalty. These effects were mechanistically described using a reinforcement learning model after the model was updated to account for the penalty-based asymmetry. The asymmetry in the effects of the reward magnitude and the punishment magnitude was so striking that it is difficult to conceive that one factor is just a weighted or transformed form of the other factor. Instead, the data suggest that rewards and penalties are fundamentally distinct factors in governing behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: kubanek@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kubanek
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Lawrence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Abrams
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011678:Punishment; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Gain; Instrumental (operant) behavior; Law of effect; Loss; Penalty; Reinforcement
references.citation: Trends Neurosci. 2007 May;30(5):203-10
references.pmid: 17400301
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 2013 Mar;139(2):497-518
references.pmid: 22823738
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1991 Jan;55(1):47-61
references.pmid: 16812630
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1980 Jan;33(1):15-25
references.pmid: 16812158
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 1998 Jul;80(1):1-27
references.pmid: 9658025
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 2003 Jul;80(1):1-27
references.pmid: 13677606
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2009 Jun 3;29(22):7278-89
references.pmid: 19494150
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1979 Jan;31(1):71-81
references.pmid: 16812124
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1962 Apr;5:247-57
references.pmid: 13912551
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1984 Nov;42(3):495-509
references.pmid: 16812404
references.citation: Psychol Rev. 2002 Oct;109(4):679-709
references.pmid: 12374324
references.citation: Child Dev. 1966 Jun;37(2):269-81
references.pmid: 5941894
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2013 Dec;83:795-808
references.pmid: 23872495
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 2000 Jul;74(1):1-24
references.pmid: 10966094
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2004 Jul 14;24(28):6258-64
references.pmid: 15254080
references.citation: Science. 2013 Aug 2;341(6145):546-9
references.pmid: 23908236
references.citation: J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1961 Aug;54:449-51
references.pmid: 13734128
references.citation: Cogn Sci. 2008 Dec;32(8):1376-402
references.pmid: 21585458
references.citation: Neuron. 2005 Aug 18;47(4):495-501
references.pmid: 16102533
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1966 Jul;9(4):421-30
references.pmid: 5961510
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 2008 Mar;89(2):157-67
references.pmid: 18422016
references.citation: Science. 2002 Mar 22;295(5563):2279-82
references.pmid: 11910116
references.citation: Neuron. 2004 Oct 14;44(2):365-78
references.pmid: 15473973
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1978 Jan;29(1):37-60
references.pmid: 16812038
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 2009 Mar;91(2):257-86
references.pmid: 19794838
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 1991 Jul;110(1):67-85
references.pmid: 1891519
references.citation: J Exp Psychol. 1967 Sep;75(1):140-2
references.pmid: 6065832
references.citation: J Appl Behav Anal. 1985 Spring;18(1):73-80
references.pmid: 3997699
references.citation: Neuron. 2005 Jul 7;47(1):129-41
references.pmid: 15996553
references.citation: Psychon Bull Rev. 2013 Apr;20(2):364-71
references.pmid: 23065763
references.citation: J Exp Anal Behav. 1968 Nov;11(6):777-86
references.pmid: 16811322
references.citation: Psychol Rev. 1954 Jan;61(1):34-46
references.pmid: 13134415
references.citation: J Appl Behav Anal. 2002 Winter;35(4):431-64
references.pmid: 12555918