Multiple Systems for Value Learning

Although choice is often unitary on theoretical accounts, there is much empirical evidence that decisions are produced by multiple, cooperating or competing neural and psychological mechanisms. We review the evidence that decisions in humans and other animals are influenced by three systems for value learning: Pavlovian, habitual, and goal-directed. These systems are behaviorally dissociable, are mediated by at least partly differentiable brain systems, and embody distinct computational principles. We discuss how the interactions between these systems for behavioral control can produce errors, inefficiencies, and disorders involving compulsion, and how these systems relate to other dual- or multiple-system models in neuroeconomics.