ArticleeLife2021
Signed and unsigned reward prediction errors dynamically enhance learning and memory.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Hippocampal-cingulate dynamics in the human brain link reinforcement-learning and memory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Posterior parietal cortex mediates rarity-induced decision bias.National science review · 2026Article
- Reward Prediction Errors Drive Reinforcement Learning and Recognition Memory: Gender Differences in Methamphetamine Abusers.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Distributed cortical learning through LEC-mediated γ-synchrony.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Does signed prediction error drive declarative memory? Evidence from variable choice paradigms.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Article
- A dynamic affective surprise signal influences episodic memory.Cognition · 2026Article
- Arousal shapes motivation: an integrative framework for understanding motivational deficits.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Insights into effortful adaptation during speech perception: The role of dopamine, norepinephrine, and prediction error.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Episodic memory facilitates flexible decision-making via access to detailed events.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Psychophysiological Outcome Responses in Human Pavlovian Fear Conditioning: A Prediction Error Analysis.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Repeated extrinsic rewards following retrieval practice facilitate later memory.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Shared effects of one's own and others' experiences during reinforcement learning on episodic memory.NPJ science of learning · 2026Article
- The phantastic organ: predictive processing in the brain.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Article
- Observational learning strategies impact the neural correlates of declarative memory formation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Gradient-Free De Novo Learning.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prediction Error-Related Memory Enhancement Depends on the Neural State Surrounding the Prediction Error Event.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Separable neural signals for reward and emotion prediction errors.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Memory helps guide behavior, but which experiences from the past are prioritized? Classic models of learning posit that events associated with unpredictable outcomes as well as, paradoxically, predictable outcomes, deploy more attention and learning for those events. Here, we test reinforcement learning and subsequent memory for those events, and treat signed and unsigned reward prediction errors (RPEs), experienced at the reward-predictive cue or reward outcome, as drivers of these two seemingly contradictory signals. By fitting reinforcement learning models to behavior, we find that both RPEs contribute to learning by modulating a dynamically changing learning rate. We further characterize the effects of these RPE signals on memory and show that both signed and unsigned RPEs enhance memory, in line with midbrain dopamine and locus-coeruleus modulation of hippocampal plasticity, thereby reconciling separate findings in the literature.
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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.