Value and affective valence are pivotal constructs in decision and emotion science that are commonly believed to be closely connected. However, there is no consensus on precisely how these constructs relate, with different researchers adopting substantially different views. Here, we sought to help clarify this relationship by providing a test of two leading hypotheses that avoided common sources of ambiguity in past evidence. Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that affective valence tracks value, and that affective valence tracks value updates (i.e., changes in value), in four classical conditioning tasks. We found consistent evidence that affective valence tracked value per se, rather than value updates, in our tasks. Additionally, we found that more optimistic expectations led to more positive affect following outcomes. These results provide insight into the relationship between value and affective valence, and thus inform a broad range of psychological research that depends on understanding the connection between these constructs.
