Abstract
BackgroundApproach and avoidance behavior provide a means for assessing the rewarding or aversive value of stimuli, and can be quantified by a keypress procedure whereby subjects work to increase (approach), decrease (avoid), or do nothing about time of exposure to a rewarding/aversive stimulus. To investigate whether approach/avoidance behavior might be governed by quantitative principles that meet engineering criteria for lawfulness and that encode known features of reward/aversion function, we evaluated whether keypress responses toward pictures with potential motivational value produced any regular patterns, such as a trade-off between approach and avoidance, or recurrent lawful patterns as observed with prospect theory.Methodology/Principal FindingsThree sets of experiments employed this task with beautiful face images, a standardized set of affective photographs, and pictures of food during controlled states of hunger and satiety. An iterative modeling approach to data identified multiple law-like patterns, based on variables grounded in the individual. These patterns were consistent across stimulus types, robust to noise, describable by a simple power law, and scalable between individuals and groups. Patterns included: (i) a preference trade-off counterbalancing approach and avoidance, (ii) a value function linking preference intensity to uncertainty about preference, and (iii) a saturation function linking preference intensity to its standard deviation, thereby setting limits to both.Conclusions/SignificanceThese law-like patterns were compatible with critical features of prospect theory, the matching law, and alliesthesia. Furthermore, they appeared consistent with both mean-variance and expected utility approaches to the assessment of risk. Ordering of responses across categories of stimuli demonstrated three properties thought to be relevant for preference-based choice, suggesting these patterns might be grouped together as a relative preference theory. Since variables in these patterns have been associated with reward circuitry structure and function, they may provide a method for quantitative phenotyping of normative and pathological function (e.g., psychiatric illness).
Highlights
Intentional behavior, across a spectrum of healthy and disordered conditions such as addiction, is hypothesized to reflect differences in judgment and decision-making around relative preference [1]
The keypress task was first conducted using a stimulus set associated with strong reward/aversion behavior, namely a picture set of faces of men and women who were models or non-models [i.e., beautiful female (BF), average female (AF), beautiful male (BM), average male (AM) faces [14]
We assessed the mathematical fit of any graphical structure observed, how this fit scaled between group and individual data, and whether the structure demonstrated the signature of a power law
Summary
Intentional behavior, across a spectrum of healthy and disordered conditions such as addiction, is hypothesized to reflect differences in judgment and decision-making around relative preference [1]. Relative preference is defined by the variable extent an individual will approach or avoid [2,3,4] commodities and events based on their rewarding or aversive features [5,6] It can be expressed by the payment an individual makes to avoid a perceived bad outcome, or approach a positive one. Prior study of relative preference (with variable degrees of uncertainty) has calibrated ratings of personal utility against a global framework such as the macroeconomic pricing of commodities This calibration has produced a value function that is recurrent and grounds modern prospect theory [12,13]. To investigate whether approach/avoidance behavior might be governed by quantitative principles that meet engineering criteria for lawfulness and that encode known features of reward/aversion function, we evaluated whether keypress responses toward pictures with potential motivational value produced any regular patterns, such as a trade-off between approach and avoidance, or recurrent lawful patterns as observed with prospect theory
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