ArticleNature human behaviour2022
Human value learning and representation reflect rational adaptation to task demands.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Attention modulates value normalization in human reinforcement learning by shaping reward encoding.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Context induces distortions in value representations across multiple elicitation methods and learning modalities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Learn how to be effective: neural and computational insights into charity efficiency learning.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- The timescale and direction of influence of a third inferior alternative in human value-learning.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Comparing experience- and description-based economic preferences across 11 countries.Nature human behaviour · 2024Article
- The Future of Decisions From Experience: Connecting Real-World Decision Problems to Cognitive Processes.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Outcome context-dependence is not WEIRD: Comparing reinforcement- and description-based economic preferences worldwide.Research square · 2023Article
- Training diversity promotes absolute-value-guided choice.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans and other animals routinely make choices between goods of different values. Choices are often made within identifiable contexts, such that an efficient learner may represent values relative to their local context. However, if goods occur across multiple contexts, a relative value code can lead to irrational choices. In this case, an absolute context-independent value is preferable to a relative code. Here we test the hypothesis that value representation is not fixed but rationally adapted to context expectations. In two experiments, we manipulated participants' expectations about whether item values learned within local contexts would need to be subsequently compared across contexts. Despite identical learning experiences, the group whose expectations included choices across local contexts went on to learn more absolute-like representation than the group whose expectations covered only fixed local contexts. Human value representation is thus neither relative nor absolute but efficiently and rationally tuned to task demands.
Indexed as
Identifiers
35637297What OpenQuestion holds
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.