Reference-point dependent reinforcement learning in humans and rats

Ferguson LA(#)(1), Soukupova M(#)(2)(3), Bouret S(4), Palminteri S(5)(6), Parkes SL(1).

Author information:
(1)Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, Bordeaux, France.
(2)Laboratoire des Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles, Institut
National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France.
(3)Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research
University, Paris, France.
(4)Motivation Brain and Behaviour team, ICM, Paris, France.
(5)Laboratoire des Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles, Institut
National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France.
.
(6)Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research
University, Paris, France. .
(#)Contributed equally

Rewards and punishments in reinforcement learning are encoded in both absolute
and relative manners. Reference-point dependence, a valuation bias shared by
adaptation-level and prospect theories, is often proposed as the computational
mechanism underlying relative value encoding. However, the extent to which these
behavioural and computational mechanisms are conserved across species remains to
be fully understood. We therefore designed parallel reinforcement learning tasks
in humans and rats to examine reference-point dependence across species.
Behavioural analyses showed robust relative value encoding in both species, and
computational modelling confirmed that reference-point dependence reliably
accounts for behaviour in humans and rats. Despite these major similarities
between species, some differences in behavioural and modelling parameters were
observed. Overall, our study demonstrates that relative value encoding is a
robust feature of reinforcement learning that is conserved across humans and
rats.

© 2026. The Author(s).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73623-x
PMCID: PMC13389395
PMID: 42209492 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: Competing interests: The authors declare no
competing interests.

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus