Interpreting the Reference Outcome in Thaler (1985)

Question

On page 18 of  Thaler 1985 on Value-functions $V(cdot)$, he makes an example about an individual expecting some outcome $X$, who instead obtains $(X + Delta X)$ which he then defines as the reference outcome $(X + Delta X:X)$.
How is the ':' interpreted in this case?
In this post the ':' implies $(X + frac{Delta X}{X})$. However, I don't how that fits into the overall problem stated in the paper.

Bayesian · Accepted Answer

The two notations you refer to have nothing to do with each other.
In Thaler's paper an outcome $(y:x)$ means that outcome $y$ realized while the agent expected to get outcome $x$. It refers to the idea that a reference point ($x$) matters when an actual outcome ($y$) is evaluated.
The other post refers to a mathematical notational convention used in some parts of the world. Here, $:$ is a mathematical operation, division. The historical reason for this is that $frac{x}{y}=x/y$ was sometimes written as $x div y$ for longer expressions $x$ and $y$ "back in the day" when calculations were done by hand on paper. Then, I guess, people became lazy and $x div y$ became $x : y$.

Interpreting the Reference Outcome in Thaler (1985)

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