Action, Outcome, and Value

2013/07/16 by Fiery Cushman · 3 citations
Neuroscience · Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Dual (grammatical number) #Psychology #Outcome (game theory) #Action (physics) #Value (mathematics) #Reinforcement learning #Action theory (sociology) #Social psychology #Cognition #Representation (politics) #Epistemology #Cognitive science #Cognitive psychology #Computer science #Artificial intelligence #Mathematical economics #Mathematics

paper · doi:10.1177/1088868313495594

openalex publication_date 2013/07/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Dual-system approaches to psychology explain the fundamental properties of human judgment, decision making, and behavior across diverse domains. Yet, the appropriate characterization of each system is a source of debate. For instance, a large body of research on moral psychology makes use of the contrast between "emotional" and "rational/cognitive" processes, yet even the chief proponents of this division recognize its shortcomings. Largely independently, research in the computational neurosciences has identified a broad division between two algorithms for learning and choice derived from formal models of reinforcement learning. One assigns value to actions intrinsically based on past experience, while another derives representations of value from an internally represented causal model of the world. This division between action- and outcome-based value representation provides an ideal framework for a dual-system theory in the moral domain.

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Cited by

• Searching for Moral Dumbfounding: Identifying Measurable Indicators of Moral Dumbfounding
• Reasons or rationalizations: The role of principles in the moral dumbfounding paradigm
• Moral psychology [wikipedia]