Motivational mechanisms of optimal foraging: A novel theory and critical tests with pigeons in a semi-natural foraging environment

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In the environment, animals are exposed to food resources that are neither abundant nor homogeneously distributed. Intra- and inter-specific competition contributes to magnify this phenomenon. Natural selection shaped optimal foraging strategies that allow organisms to reduce food unpredictability, but the psychological mechanisms that underpin optimal foraging are poorly understood. This project tries to uncover the motivational mechanisms of optimal foraging as tested with pigeons in a semi-natural foraging environment under conditions of food insecurity. Pigeons will be used as an animal model because a vast literature is devoted to the study of uncertainty processing in these birds, while at the same time foraging strategies have not deeply been studied in pigeons relative to other bird species, such as small passerines. Pigeons have a lower risk of starvation because they are larger birds than most passerines, and this may have an impact on their foraging strategies. The environment will basically consist of a foraging platform perforated with holes and a realistic display of competitors on a computer screen. Major predictions of behavioral theories relevant to the study of animal foraging under food unpredictability will be tested and contrasted. First, the results of the experiments presented here could provide information about the effects of food insecurity in environmental conditions more realistic than those traditionally used. Second, they could have important theoretical implications for the understanding of the invariant motivational and behavioral mechanisms of reward-associated behaviors across all vertebrate classes.