A study of psychological mechanisms in foraging decisions.

本研究探讨了捕食者可能做出的觅食决策的某些方面，例如通过使用并发和连续的选择过程如何和在哪里觅食。在并发选择过程中，终端链路的可达性随初始链路持续时间的变化而变化。改变偏好结果（较大强化因素）的可及性比改变较不偏好结果（较小强化因素）的可及性对选择的影响更大。这一发现与Fantino的延迟减少模型的预测一致。在连续选择过程中，研究了三种不同类型的猎物分布，如泊松分布、二项分布和负二项分布，对捕食者使用斑块利用策略的影响。对于所有三种分布，捕获的猎物数量随着搜索时间的增加而增加，放弃时间（由捕获最后一个猎物的时间与捕食者离开斑块的时间之间的间隔定义）也随着搜索时间的增加而增加。在这种情况下，Herrnstein的匹配模型成功地适用于这些数据。这些发现表明，选择模型所假设的心理机制在觅食决策中起作用。

The present study investigated some aspects of foraging decisions that a predator may make, such as how and where to feed by using a concurrent and successive choice procedure. In a concurrent choice procedure, the accessibility of the terminal links differed in the reinfrcer amount was varied by changing the duration of the initial link. Changing accessibility of the preferred outcome (the larger reinforcer) had a greater effect on choice than changing accessibility of the less preferred outcome (the smaller reinforcer). This finding is consistent with the prediction from Fantino's delay-reduction model. In a successive choice procedure, the effects of prey distribution on the patch-use strategy used by a pre dator were examined for three different types of the prey distribution, such as a Poisson, Binomial, and Negative binomial distribution. For all three distributions, the number of obtained preys increased with the increases in the search time, and also the duration of the give-up time, defined by the interval between the time the last prey was captured and the time the predator left the patch, increased with the increases in the search time. In this case, Herrnstein's matching model was successfully applicable to these data. These findings indicate that the psychological mechanisms assumed by the choice models play a role in making foraging decisions.