Psychology of Rewards Class Notes - Week 4 02/08/2024

02/08/2024 - Week 4 (Student-led class notes)

1. Discuss the concept of prediction error, its involvement in learning, and the role of
dopamine in it:
a. The discrepancy between what you expect from a reward and what you receive
b. Dopamine peak no longer occurs at the time of the reward but now right before -
during the anticipation and “cue” part of the reward
c. “Error” sounds negative but it is not → it is called error because it is a change in
behavior, an accidental or intentional mistake that leads to learning → can be
positive or negative and lead to aversive or approach behavior
d. Reward plays into learning when a “neutral” stimulus becomes conditioned and then
elicits the conditioned response
2. Focus on the role of OFC and Striatum in different aspects related to reward.
a. The OFC adjusts your prediction reaction based on your experiences and previous
expectations
i. Ex: if you love steak but you have steak every single day the value of the
reward will decrease → requires the body to reset until the reward regains
its value again
b. Incentive prediction
i. Ex: you walk past a bakery and you know it will most likely have baked
goods in it
ii. When you think of an apple you know that it’s delicious and that you can get
it from an apple → You can predict that you can get it from the market and
the incentive is that it is good for you and delicious
iii. Two processes that work together and explain reward processes function in
learning
c. Striatum (ventral + dorsal)
i. Activated during reward anticipation
ii. Often conjointly with activities related to the preparation of movement -
obtaining a reward requires action
1. The anticipation of the reward activates the striatum
2. Ex: making a coffee is the action that leads to the anticipation of the
reward and activates the striatum
iii. Also tracks reward value
iv. As a consequence, helps adjust behavior according to outcome (prediction
error)
1. You learn from past experiences with stimuli/rewards
2. You learn to expect more of a reward after a positive prediction error
3. Discuss the concept of reward anticipation vs reward information
a. Anticipation leads to reward consumption, while information just lets the organism
know that a reward is available - professor’s emails
b. Reward information is knowing a reward is available
c. Reward anticipation can come from social context or information from peers/family,
you don’t need to have experienced the reward to anticipate it
 Psychology of Rewards Class Notes - Week 4 02/08/2024

4. Principles of learning
a. Food and reproduction are the primary rewards
b. Learning is evolutionarily advantageous - less need for preprogrammed
processes/mechanisms (which would require a larger brain)
c. Classic and operant conditioning lead to selection of behaviors that are beneficial for
survival
5. Discuss the Morris et al. (2015) study
a. Summary of results: there is no association between reward learning and familial
depression risk
i. Current anhedonic states are what influence an individual’s reward learning
processes more than the familial mental health history
b. They found that children who were at high risk for depression did not have reward
learning issues
c. They also found that stress impacts reward learning → the researchers were not
clear on how it impacts it and said that further research is needed
6. Discuss how this can be applied to your final project