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Value control of punishment
Felipe I Varas1, Anthony Dickinson2, Omar David Perez3,4,5
1Department of Psychology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. felipe.varas@ug.uchile.cl.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|July 20, 2026
Summary
Punishment effectiveness depends on the current value of the aversive consequence, not just past experience. This study shows that changing the perceived negative value of a punishment alters behavior, supporting value-sensitive decision-making models.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Cognitive science
- Animal behavior
Background:
- Deterrence theory assumes individuals suppress actions based on negative consequences.
- Existing research lacks experimental evidence on whether punished behavior is controlled by the punisher's current value.
- Instrumental punishment's control by the current value of the punisher remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if instrumental punishment in rats is controlled by the current value of the aversive consequence.
- To determine if punishment's influence on behavior is sensitive to changes in the punisher's value.
Main Methods:
- Rats learned to press levers for food rewards.
- One lever press was punished with footshock; the other was not.
- The aversiveness of the footshock was reduced by pairing it with food.
- Behavior was tested during extinction (no shock delivered) to assess punishment control.
Main Results:
- Reducing the aversiveness of the footshock selectively abolished the suppression of the punished lever press.
- Punished behavior was not fixed but depended on the shock's current value.
- This indicates punishment is controlled by a value-sensitive representation of the action's consequence.
Conclusions:
- Instrumental punishment is dynamically controlled by the current subjective value of the aversive outcome.
- Punishment operates similarly to goal-directed reward-seeking behavior in its sensitivity to outcome value.
- Findings challenge fixed notions of punishment and support cognitive models of decision-making under aversive control.
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