Evaluation (the process attributing value to outcomes) underlies “hot” aspects of cognition, such as emotion, affect, and motivation. In several psychopathologies, such as depression and addiction, impairments in evaluation are critical. Contemporary theories highlight the reference-dependent nature of evaluation, whereby outcomes are evaluated relative to their context. Surprisingly, reference-dependent evaluation remains to be explored in the context of psychopathology. We offer a computational theory of how impaired reference-dependent evaluation might underlie mental illness. The theory proposes that evaluation derives from comparing an outcome against a reference point parameter and by weighting any discrepancy by an uncertainty parameter. Maladaptive evaluation is proposed to occur when these parameters do not reflect the true context statistics. Depending on which parameter is altered, different forms of maladaptive evaluation emerge, each associated with specific clinical conditions. This model highlights how the concept of reference-dependent evaluation can elucidate several clinical conditions, including perfectionism, depression, and addiction.

评估（将价值归因于结果的过程）是认知的“热门”方面的基础，例如情感，情感和动机。在诸如抑郁症和成瘾症等几种心理病理学中，评估障碍至关重要。当代理论强调了评估的参考依赖性质，由此相对于其背景对结果进行评估。出乎意料的是，在精神病理学的背景下，依赖参考的评估仍有待探索。我们提供了一种计算理论，即依赖参考的评估受损可能是精神疾病的基础。该理论提出，评估是通过将结果与参考点参数进行比较并通过不确定性参数对任何差异进行加权来得出的。当这些参数不能反映真实的上下文统计信息时，建议进行适应性评估。取决于更改的参数，出现了不同形式的适应不良评估，每种形式都与特定的临床状况相关。该模型突出了参考依赖评估的概念如何阐明几种临床状况，包括完美主义，抑郁和成瘾。