Because expectancies play a central role in current theories of dopaminergic neuron function, it is important to develop measures of reward anticipation processes. In the present study, reflexogenic bursts of white noise were presented to 39 healthy young adults as they awaited rewards and punishments in a gambling-like task. The rewards were small pieces of chocolate; the punishments, segments...

Many institutional arrangements suggest that punishments and rewards each play a separate role in providing incentives. In New York City’s recent negotiations with its teacher’s union, for instance, the city sought a contract that would strengthen school principals’ ability to assign teachers to be cafeteria monitors, in part because this allows them to punish underperforming teachers. The cont...

Through different policies and measures reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhancing conservation (REDD+) has grown into a way to induce behavior change of forest managers and landowners in tropical countries. We argue that debates around REDD+ in Brazil have typically highlighted rewards and punishments, obscuring other core interventions and strategies that are also cri...

People often make decisions under aversive conditions such as acute stress. Yet, less is known about the process in which acute stress can influence decision-making. A growing body of research has established that reward-related information associated with the outcomes of decisions exerts a powerful influence over the choices people make and that an extensive network of brain regions, prominent...

One popular way of exorcising the ddmon of dimensionality in dynamic programming is to consider spatial and temporal hierarchies for representing the value functions and policies. This paper develops a hierarchical method for Q-learning which is based on the familiar notion of a recursive feudal serfdom, with managers setting tasks and giving rewards and punishments to their juniors and in thei...

Clark AM. Reward processing: a global brain phenomenon? J Neurophysiol 109: 1–4, 2013. First published July 18, 2012; doi:10.1152/jn.00070.2012.—Rewards and punishments (reinforcement) powerfully shape behavior. Accordingly, their neuronal representation is of significant interest, both for understanding normal brain-behavior relationships and the pathophysiology of disorders such as depression...

Apex games place weak players in the formal equivalent of a multiperson prisoner's dilemma in which each weak player must choose between competing against the other weak players for the opportunity to coalesce with the strong player or cooperating with the other weak players to produce a jointly preferable outcome. Punishments, not rewards, are predicted to be effective for enforcing cooperatio...