ArticleScientific reports2018
The neural encoding of information prediction errors during non-instrumental information seeking.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed.
- Distinct motivational factors shape news-seeking in young adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Why do we seek information about the future? On the origins of subjective value without instrumental value.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The Impact of Threat Level and Performance Feedback on Checking Behaviour and Its Concomitants: A Multi-Site Study.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- Modeling information demand in the framework of probabilistic reasoning.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Post-loss speeding and neurophysiological markers of action preparation and outcome processing in probabilistic reversal learning.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- Higher-order and distributed synergistic functional interactions encode information gain in goal-directed learning.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Do goldfish like to be informed?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- To know or not to know? Curiosity and the value of prospective information in animals.Learning & behavior · 2025Review
- The Value of Non-Instrumental Information in Anxiety: Insights from a Resource-Rational Model of Planning.Computational psychiatry (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Simultaneous EEG-fNIRS study of visual cognitive processing: ERP analysis and decision-related hemodynamic responses in healthy adults.PloS one · 2025Article
- Temporal context effects on suboptimal choice.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- Rats' performance in a suboptimal choice procedure implemented in a natural-foraging analogue.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Exploration-Exploitation Mechanisms in Recurrent Neural Networks and Human Learners in Restless Bandit Problems.Computational brain & behavior · 2024Article
- The effect of noninstrumental information on reward learning.Memory & cognition · 2024Article
- Identifying the Effect of Cognitive Motivation with the Method Based on Temporal Association Rule Mining Concept.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Broad brain networks support curiosity-motivated incidental learning of naturalistic dynamic stimuli with and without monetary incentives.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Non-instrumental information seeking is resistant to acute stress.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- When less is more: coy display behaviours and the temporal dynamics of animal courtship.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The non-unitary nature of information preference.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Article
- The availability of non-instrumental information increases risky decision-making.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In a dynamic world, accurate beliefs about the environment are vital for survival, and individuals should therefore regularly seek out new information with which to update their beliefs. This aspect of behaviour is not well captured by standard theories of decision making, and the neural mechanisms of information seeking remain unclear. One recent theory posits that valuation of information results from representation of informative stimuli within canonical neural reward-processing circuits, even if that information lacks instrumental use. We investigated this question by recording EEG from twenty-three human participants performing a non-instrumental information-seeking task. In this task, participants could pay a monetary cost to receive advance information about the likelihood of receiving reward in a lottery at the end of each trial. Behavioural results showed that participants were willing to incur considerable monetary costs to acquire early but non-instrumental information. Analysis of the event-related potential elicited by informative cues revealed that the feedback-related negativity independently encoded both an information prediction error and a reward prediction error. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that information seeking results from processing of information within neural reward circuits, and suggests that information may represent a distinct dimension of valuation in decision making under uncertainty.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.