How is information seeking related to cue and outcome values in pigeons? A new, ecologically realistic foraging paradigm

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It is common to interpret animal foraging as a random search for reward (such as food) and reward-predictive cues (odors, colors, shapes, etc.) or as the result of a learned expectation of profitable locations. There are no doubts that finding rewards is the ultimate goal of foraging activity and that animals may use various strategies to obtain them. But what animals are exactly doing when they seek food is a matter of discussion. Are they only focused on the cues and the rewards to be possibly encountered? Or are they also searching for information capable of predicting consistent (reliable) cue-reward pairings as accurately as possible? The present project aims to uncover the role of information in search effort and choice behavior in a foraging task. The task is designed to minimize the effect of reward predictive cues on decision and information is always associated with the less rewarding option. In the most rewarding (non-informative) option, pigeons have to give operant pecks that provide food with a 33% chance (once every three pecks, on average), whether the key is blue or yellow. In the less rewarding (fully informative) option, pigeons have to give operant pecks that provide food with a 100% chance after a yellow cue has been displayed (more than three pecks are required to obtain a yellow cue). Pigeons (Columba livia) will be used as an animal model because a vast literature indicates that these birds are highly sensitive to information about food delivery. At the same time, the procedures traditionally used do not tell us much about how they use this information during a foraging bout. Major predictions of behavioral theories relevant to the study of animal foraging under food unpredictability will be tested and contrasted. The results of the experiments presented in this project will tell us which parameters determine information seeking to the detriment of primary reward procurement, and vice versa, in a foraging task. We will be able to assess choice but also the willingness to make search effort.