PYI: Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Animal FeedingBehavior

这项总统青年研究员奖将提供支持， 对于进食行为的理论和实验分析， 斯蒂芬斯博士认为这是一个有用的模型， 系统. 这项研究将集中在饲养的经济学上 脊椎动物在随机变化的环境中的行为。 行为生态学中的大多数理论模型估计 行为策略的适应性价值， 增益（例如，食物、伴侣或后代）。 模型忽略了 选项可能提供的信息增益;例如， 给定的食物贴片可以提供卡路里和关于 补丁的相对质量。 斯蒂芬斯博士发明了一种新方法 估计信息的价值，他将尝试 回答了几个新的实验和理论问题 这一技术的建议。 风险敏感性和偏好实验的证据 表明食物的时间模式 收购是一个重要的（但通常被忽视）方面， 觅食 斯蒂芬斯博士将试图展示理论上的 风险敏感度和偏好之间的关系 直接性，并将试图区分实验之间 已经提出的许多理论模型来解释 这两种现象。 学习通常被看作是对不可预测的事物的适应。 环境 斯蒂芬斯博士的理论工作，在其最早的 阶段，表明学习是一种适应， 因为它是对不可预测性的适应。 这些理论模型的进一步发展具有巨大的 有可能改变关于动物学习的传统观点， 比较学习能力。 斯蒂芬斯博士的研究可以应用于两个实际的领域。 contexts. 对进食行为的理解是 对动物种群和生态系统进行明智的管理， 以及理解自然选择是如何解决 决策问题可以帮助人类决策的学生， 制作。

This Presidential Young Investigator award will provide support for theoretical and experimental analyses of feeding behavior, which Dr. Stephens views as a useful model for many behavioral systems. The research will focus on the economics of the feeding behavior of vertebrate animals in randomly varying environments. Most theoretical models in behavioral ecology estimate the fitness value of behavioral tactics in terms of some immediate gain (e.g., of food, mates, or offspring). The models ignore the gains of information that an option might provide; for example, a given food patch may provide both calories and information about the patch's relative quality. Dr. Stephens has devised a new way to estimate the value of information, and he will attempt to answer several new experimental and theoretical quesions suggested by this technique. Evidence from experiments on risk-sensitivity and on preferences for immediacy suggest that the temporal pattern of food acquisition is an important (but usually neglected) aspect of foraging. Dr. Stephens will attempt to show the theoretical relationships between risk-sensitivity and preferences for immediacy, and will attempt to distinguish experimentally among the many theoretical models that have been proposed to explain these two phenomena. Learning is usually viewed as an adaptation to an unpredictable environment. Dr. Stephens' theoretical work, in its earliest stages, suggests that learning is as much an adaptation to predictability as it is an adaptation to unpredictability. Further development of these theoretical models has a tremendous potential to change conventional views about animal learning and comparative learning abilities. Dr. Stephens' research might be applied in two practical contexts. An understanding of feeding behavior is fundamental to well-informed management of animal populations and ecosystems, and understanding how natural selection has solved behavioral decision-making problems may help students of human decision- making.