Your valuation of everything around you is changeable, because quite often our predictions don’t match what actually happens. The key to effective learning lies in tracking this prediction error: the difference between the expected outcome of a choice and the outcome that actually occurred. In today’s case, my brain has a prediction about how rewarding the park is going to be. If we run into friends there and it turns out even better than I thought, that raises the appraisal the next time I’m making such a decision. On the other hand, if the swings are broken and it rains, that lowers my
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