Experimental studies on self-control and risky choice

自我控制与风险选择的实验研究

• 批准号: 06610080
• 负责人: ITO Masato
• 金额: $ 0.96万
• 依托单位: OSAKA CITY UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 日本
• 项目类别: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 日本
• 起止时间: 1994 至 1995
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/en/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-06610080/
• 关键词: Choice; Self-control; Risk; Generalized matching law; Functional equivalence; Humans; Rats; Pigeons; 対応法則

The present study investigated humans'and animals'choices in self-control and risky choice situations, in which reinforcer amounts and reinforcer delays or reinforcement probability were varied separately or together, to see whether a functional equivalence of reinforcer delay and probability can hold in a choice situation.The present results with human subjects showed that in a self-control choice situation, humans were more sensitive to reinforcer amount than to delay, and their choices were, in a qualitative sense, described by the overall density of reinforcement rather than the local density of reinforcement as represented by the generalized matching law. Further, the results with rats as subjects showed that in a risky choice situation, rats preferred a variable food over a constant food when the energy budget condition (defined by their body weights) was negative, whereas they preferred the constant food over the variable food when it was positive ; that is, they showed "risk aversion" or "risk proneness" depending on their body weights. In another risky choice situation, it was found that rats were indifferent between certain, more delayd and uncertain, less delayd reinforcers. This finding clearly indicate that a functional equivalence of reinforcer delay and probability can hold in the present choice situation. Pigeons'choices were examined in situations where reinforcer amount and probability were varied separately or together. As a result, their choices were, in a qualitative sense, consisitent with predictions from the generalized matching law.Taken together, it seems that probability can be transformed to delay intervals, thereby a risky choice situation may be reduced to the situation where reinforcer amount and delay are varied as in a self-control choice situation.

本研究考察了人类和动物在自我控制和风险选择情境中的选择行为，在这些情境中，选择者的数量和选择者的延迟或强化概率分别或同时变化，以观察选择情境中选择者延迟和概率的功能等价是否成立。人类对强化量的敏感性高于对延迟的敏感性，并且在定性意义上，人类的选择是由强化的整体密度来描述的，而不是由广义匹配律所代表的局部密度来描述的。此外，以大鼠为对象的实验结果显示，在风险选择的情况下，当能量收支条件（由体重决定）为负值时，大鼠倾向于可变食物而非恒定食物，而当能量收支条件为正值时，大鼠倾向于恒定食物而非可变食物，表现出与体重相关的“风险厌恶”或“风险倾向”。在另一个风险选择的情况下，研究发现，大鼠在确定的、延迟更大的选择和不确定的、延迟更小的选择之间是无差别的。这一发现清楚地表明，在当前的选择情况下，一个功能等价的延迟和概率可以举行。研究了猪的选择，在不同的情况下，分别改变或一起的数量和概率。结果表明，他们的选择在定性意义上与广义匹配律的预测一致，同时，似乎可以将概率转化为延迟区间，从而将风险选择情形简化为自我控制选择情形中的延迟量和延迟量变化的情形。