CHOICE, OPTIMAL FORAGING, AND THE DELAY-REDUCTION HYPOTHESIS
CHOICE, OPTIMAL FORAGING, AND THE DELAY-REDUCTION HYPOTHESIS
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DOI：
10.1017/s0140525x00020847
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发表时间：
1985-01-01
影响因子：
29.3
通讯作者：
ABARCA, N
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
FANTINO, E;ABARCA, N
有行为的有机体在不断地选择。近年来，行为生态学家和实验心理学家对决策的理论和实证研究集中在觅食，特别是食物获取方面。这种融合提出了一个跨学科的问题，即在操作性条件反射实验室中研究决策制定的原则是否与自然发生的觅食决策一致。一个这样的原则，“无参数延迟减少假说”，在操作性条件反射实验室的选择研究中发展出来，指出刺激作为一个刺激的有效性可以通过计算与刺激开始相关的食物呈现时间的减少来最准确地预测，相对于从前一个刺激开始测量的食物呈现时间的长度。由于觅食涉及选择，延迟减少假说可以扩展到预测觅食方面。我们讨论的策略，评估参数的觅食与操作性实验室模拟觅食。然后，我们比较的延迟减少假说的预测与最佳觅食理论，由行为生态学家开发的，显示，除了两个例外，这两个位置作出可比的预测。延迟减少假说也比较了几个当代pscyhological帐户的选择。我们对鸽子进行了几项实验，设计为觅食的操作性条件反射模拟，结果表明：受试者花在寻找或在潜在食物来源之间旅行的时间越多，他们的选择性就越低，也就是说，他们越有可能接受不太喜欢的结果;花在获取食物上的时间越长，他们就越容易接受不太喜欢的结果。（“处理”）食物增加了选择性;获得首选结果的频率对选择的影响大于获得不太首选结果的频率;受试者最大化强化，无论是强化的速率、数量还是概率是不同的;在不同类型的剥夺（开放与封闭经济）下，受试者的表现没有显著差异。这些结果都符合延迟减少假说。此外，他们认为，操作性条件反射实验室的技术可能在觅食研究中具有富有成效的应用，并且，在这样做的过程中，他们强调了跨学科方法对行为的重要性。
Behaving organisms are continually choosing. Recently the theoretical and empirical study of decision making by behavioral ecologists and experimental psychologists have converged in the area of foraging, particularly food acquisition. This convergence has raised the interdisciplinary question of whether principles that have emerged from the study of decision making in the operant conditioning laboratory are consistent with decision making in naturally occurring foraging. One such principle, the “parameter-free delay-reduction hypothesis, ” developed in studies of choice in the operant conditioning laboratory, states that the effectiveness of a stimulus as a reinforcer may be predicted most accurately by calculating the decrease in time to food presentation correlated with the onset of the stimulus, relative to the length of time to food presentation measured from the onset of the preceding stimulus. Since foraging involves choice, the delay-reduction hypothesis may be extended to predict aspects of foraging. We discuss the strategy of assessing parameters of foraging with operant laboratory analogues to foraging. We then compare the predictions of the delay-reduction hypothesis with those of optimal foraging theory, developed by behavioral ecologists, showing that, with two exceptions, the two positions make comparable predictions. The delay-reduction hypothesis is also compared to several contemporary pscyhological accounts of choice. Results from several of our experiments with pigeons, designed as operant conditioning simulations of foraging, have shown the following: The more time subjects spend searching for or traveling between potential food sources, the less selective they become, that is, the more likely they are to accept the less preferred outcome; increasing time spent procuring (“handling”) food increases selectivity; how often the preferred outcome is available has a greater effect on choice then how often the less preferred outcome is available; subjects maximize reinforcement whether it is the rate, amount, or probability of reinforcement that is varied; there are no significant differences between subjects performing under different types of deprivation (open vs. closed economies). These results are all consistent with the delay-reduction hypothesis. Moreover, they suggest that the technology of the operant conditioning laboratory may have fruitful application in the study of foraging, and, in doing so, they underscore the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to behavior.