You can still use the same positively-oriented brainstorming process for figuring out how to avoid bad outcomes. As soon as there’s even a vague idea of avoiding a very bad outcome, that becomes a very good reward prediction after taking the differential. The dopamine system does calculate such differentials, and it seems like the valance system, while probably different from direct reward prediction and more conceptual, should and could also take differentials in useful ways. Valance needs to at least somewhat dependent on context. I don’t think this requires unique mechanisms (although it might have them); it’s sufficient to learn variants of the concepts like “avoiding a really bad event” and then attaching valance to that concept variant.
Interesting! I think that works.
You can still use the same positively-oriented brainstorming process for figuring out how to avoid bad outcomes. As soon as there’s even a vague idea of avoiding a very bad outcome, that becomes a very good reward prediction after taking the differential. The dopamine system does calculate such differentials, and it seems like the valance system, while probably different from direct reward prediction and more conceptual, should and could also take differentials in useful ways. Valance needs to at least somewhat dependent on context. I don’t think this requires unique mechanisms (although it might have them); it’s sufficient to learn variants of the concepts like “avoiding a really bad event” and then attaching valance to that concept variant.