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Macías A, González VV, Machado A, Vasconcelos M. Time, uncertainty, and suboptimal choice. Behav Processes 2024; 214:104982. [PMID: 38072037 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
Under certain conditions, pigeons prefer information about whether food will be forthcoming at the end of an interval to a higher chance of obtaining the food. In the typical protocol, choosing one option (Informative) is followed by one of two 10-s long terminal-link stimuli: SG always ending in food or SR never ending in food, with SG occurring only 20% of the trials. The other option (Non-informative) is also followed by one of two 10-s long terminal-link stimuli: SB or SY, both ending in food 50% of the trials. Although the Informative option yields food with a lower probability than the Non-informative (0.2 vs. 0.5), pigeons prefer it. To determine whether such preference occurs because SG and SR disambiguate the trial outcome immediately upon choice, we delayed the moment the disambiguation took place in two experiments. In Experiment 1, when the Informative option was chosen, SG always ensued for t seconds of the terminal-link, and then the standard contingencies followed. Experiment 2 was similar, except that SR always ensued for t seconds. Across conditions, t varied from 0 to 10 s. In both experiments, preference for the Informative option decreased with t, but the effect was stronger in Experiment 1. We discuss the implication of these findings for functional and mechanistic models of suboptimal choice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Macías
- Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
| | | | - Armando Machado
- William James Center for Research, University of Aveiro, Portugal
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George TM, de Cothi W, Stachenfeld KL, Barry C. Rapid learning of predictive maps with STDP and theta phase precession. eLife 2023; 12:80663. [PMID: 36927826 PMCID: PMC10019887 DOI: 10.7554/elife.80663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 02/26/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The predictive map hypothesis is a promising candidate principle for hippocampal function. A favoured formalisation of this hypothesis, called the successor representation, proposes that each place cell encodes the expected state occupancy of its target location in the near future. This predictive framework is supported by behavioural as well as electrophysiological evidence and has desirable consequences for both the generalisability and efficiency of reinforcement learning algorithms. However, it is unclear how the successor representation might be learnt in the brain. Error-driven temporal difference learning, commonly used to learn successor representations in artificial agents, is not known to be implemented in hippocampal networks. Instead, we demonstrate that spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP), a form of Hebbian learning, acting on temporally compressed trajectories known as 'theta sweeps', is sufficient to rapidly learn a close approximation to the successor representation. The model is biologically plausible - it uses spiking neurons modulated by theta-band oscillations, diffuse and overlapping place cell-like state representations, and experimentally matched parameters. We show how this model maps onto known aspects of hippocampal circuitry and explains substantial variance in the temporal difference successor matrix, consequently giving rise to place cells that demonstrate experimentally observed successor representation-related phenomena including backwards expansion on a 1D track and elongation near walls in 2D. Finally, our model provides insight into the observed topographical ordering of place field sizes along the dorsal-ventral axis by showing this is necessary to prevent the detrimental mixing of larger place fields, which encode longer timescale successor representations, with more fine-grained predictions of spatial location.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom M George
- Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - William de Cothi
- Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | | | - Caswell Barry
- Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
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De Agrò M, Matschunas C, Czaczkes TJ. Bundling and segregation affect pheromone deposition, but not choice, in an ant. eLife 2022; 11:79314. [PMID: 36412093 PMCID: PMC9681204 DOI: 10.7554/elife.79314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Behavioural economists have identified many psychological manipulations which affect perceived value. A prominent example of this is bundling, in which several small gains (or costs) are experienced as more valuable (or costly) than if the same total amount is presented together. While extensively demonstrated in humans, to our knowledge this effect has never been investigated in an animal, let alone an invertebrate. We trained individual Lasius niger workers to two of three conditions in which either costs (travel distance), gains (sucrose reward), or both were either bundled or segregated: (1) both costs and gains bundled, (2) both segregated, and (3) only gains segregated. We recorded pheromone deposition on the ants' return trips to the nest as measure of perceived value. After training, we offer the ants a binary choice between odours associated with the treatments. While bundling treatment did not affect binary choice, it strongly influenced pheromone deposition. Ants deposited c. 80% more pheromone when rewards were segregated but costs bundled as compared with both costs and rewards being bundled. This pattern is further complicated by the pairwise experience each animal made, and which of the treatments it experiences first during training. This demonstrates that even insects are influenced by bundling effects. We propose that the deviation between binary choice and pheromone deposition in this case may be due to a possible linearity in distance perception in ants, while almost all other sensory perception in animals is logarithmic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Massimo De Agrò
- Animal Comparative Economics laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Chiara Matschunas
- Animal Comparative Economics laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Tomer J Czaczkes
- Animal Comparative Economics laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
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Schulze C, Hertwig R. A description-experience gap in statistical intuitions: Of smart babies, risk-savvy chimps, intuitive statisticians, and stupid grown-ups. Cognition 2021; 210:104580. [PMID: 33667974 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Revised: 12/10/2020] [Accepted: 12/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Comparison of different lines of research on statistical intuitions and probabilistic reasoning reveals several puzzling contradictions. Whereas babies seem to be intuitive statisticians, surprisingly capable of statistical learning and inference, adults' statistical inferences have been found to be inconsistent with the rules of probability theory and statistics. Whereas researchers in the 1960s concluded that people's probability updating is "conservatively" proportional to normative predictions, probability updating research in the 1970s suggested that people are incapable of following Bayes's rule. And whereas animals appear to be strikingly risk savvy, humans often seem "irrational" when dealing with probabilistic information. Drawing on research on the description-experience gap in risky choice, we integrate and systematize these findings from disparate fields of inquiry that have, to date, operated largely in parallel. Our synthesis shows that a key factor in understanding inconsistencies in statistical intuitions research is whether probabilistic inferences are based on symbolic, abstract descriptions or on the direct experience of statistical information. We delineate this view from other conceptual accounts, consider potential mechanisms by which attributes of first-hand experience can facilitate appropriate statistical inference, and identify conditions under which they improve or impair probabilistic reasoning. To capture the full scope of human statistical intuition, we conclude, research on probabilistic reasoning across the lifespan, across species, and across research traditions must bear in mind that experience and symbolic description of the world may engage systematically distinct cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christin Schulze
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Ralph Hertwig
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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López-Tolsa GE, Niño JM, Orduña V. The essential value of the alternatives of the suboptimal choice procedure is different for pigeons and rats. Behav Processes 2020; 181:104245. [PMID: 32991942 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 08/29/2020] [Accepted: 09/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Suboptimal choice is the preference for a discriminative alternative with low probability of reinforcement, over a non-discriminative alternative with higher probability of reinforcement. Pigeons consistently prefer the discriminative alternative, whereas rats prefer the non-discriminative; the variables accounting for this difference are not yet clear. The economic concepts related to demand curves have been used to calculate the essential value of different types of reinforcers, so they may be useful to compare the value of the alternatives in the suboptimal choice procedure. The goal of this study was to calculate the essential value of each of the alternatives presented in the suboptimal choice procedure to assess if pigeons (Experiment 1) and rats (Experiment 2) value them differently. In both experiments, the fixed ratio requirement in the initial link was increased throughout sessions in order to obtain the demand curve and calculate the essential value by fitting the exponential-demand model. A Bayesian Linear Mixed-Effects Model indicated that pigeons had higher essential values for the discriminative alternative, whereas rats obtained higher essential values for the non-discriminative alternative. These results suggest that preferences in the suboptimal choice procedure are indeed based on the essential value of the alternatives, and provide a new paradigm to study the variables affecting this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela E López-Tolsa
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
| | - José Manuel Niño
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
| | - Vladimir Orduña
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico.
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Bartonicek A, Colombo M. Claw-in-the-door: pigeons, like humans, display the foot-in-the-door effect. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:893-900. [PMID: 32440793 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01395-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2019] [Revised: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
People are more likely to comply with a large request when it is preceded by another, smaller request, and this is known as the "foot-in-the-door" (FITD). The FITD has been widely studied in social psychology and is thought to arise from mutually conflicting beliefs about past and present behavior (cognitive dissonance) or changes in self-perception. Across two experiments, we found that pigeons' latency to respond to an effortful second stimulus in a pair scales with how much effort they had exerted on the first stimulus. As such, pigeons also display a FITD-like effect. We argue that the FITD may not be caused by conflicting beliefs or changes in self-perception but may instead be the product of behavioral contrast.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Bartonicek
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
| | - M Colombo
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
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González VV, Macías A, Machado A, Vasconcelos M. The Δ-∑ hypothesis: How contrast and reinforcement rate combine to generate suboptimal choice. J Exp Anal Behav 2020; 113:591-608. [PMID: 32237091 DOI: 10.1002/jeab.595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 02/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
When given a choice between two alternatives, each offering food after the same delay with different but signaled probabilities, pigeons often prefer the low probability alternative. This preference is surprising because pigeons fail to maximize the rate of food intake; they exhibit a suboptimal preference. We advance a new explanation, the Δ-∑ hypothesis, in which the difference in probability of reinforcement within terminal links (Δ) and the overall reinforcement probability rate of each alternative (∑) are the key variables responsible for such suboptimal preference. We tested the Δ-∑ hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the Δs while maintaining constant all other parameters of the task, in particular the ∑s. We predicted a preference for the alternative with the larger Δ. In Experiment 2, we examined the effect of the overall reinforcement probabilities, the ∑s, while maintaining constant all other parameters of the task, in particular the Δs. We predicted a preference for the larger ∑. The results of both experiments support the Δ-∑ hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alejandro Macías
- Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Armando Machado
- Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.,William James Center for Research, University of Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Marco Vasconcelos
- Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.,William James Center for Research, University of Aveiro, Portugal
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Dokovna LB, Li G, Wood RI. Anabolic-androgenic steroids and cognitive effort discounting in male rats. Horm Behav 2019; 113:13-20. [PMID: 31054274 PMCID: PMC6589107 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.04.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 04/10/2019] [Accepted: 04/27/2019] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are drugs of abuse that impair behavior and cognition. In a rodent model of AAS abuse, testosterone-treated male rats expend more physical effort, by repeatedly pressing a lever for a large reward in an operant discounting task. However, since modern society prioritizes cognitive over physical effort, it is important to determine if AAS limit cognitive effort. Here we tested the effects of AAS on a novel cognitive-effort discounting task. Each operant chamber had 3 nose-pokes, opposite 2 levers and a pellet dispenser. Rats pressed a lever to illuminate 1 nose-poke; they responded in the illuminated nose-poke to receive sugar pellets. For the 'easy' lever, the light remained on for 1 s, and a correct response earned 1 pellet. For the 'hard' lever, the light duration decreased from 1 s to 0.1 s across 5 blocks of trials, and a correct response earned 4 pellets. As the duration of the nose-poke light decreased, all rats decreased their choice of the hard lever in a modest discounting curve. Task accuracy also decreased significantly across the 5 blocks of trials. However, there was no effect of testosterone on choice of the hard lever or task accuracy. Antagonism of dopamine D1 or D2 receptors had no effect on lever choice or task accuracy. However, serotonin depletion significantly decreased preference for the hard lever, and impaired task accuracy. Thus, physical effort discounting depends on dopamine activity, while cognitive effort discounting task is sensitive to serotonin. AAS impair physical effort discounting, but not cognitive effort discounting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa B Dokovna
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, United States of America
| | - Grace Li
- Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, United States of America
| | - Ruth I Wood
- Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, United States of America.
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9
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Abstract
The less-is-better effect is a preference for the lesser of two alternatives sometimes observed when they are evaluated separately. For example, a dinner service of 24 intact pieces might be judged to be more valuable than a 40-piece dinner service containing nine broken pieces. Pattison and Zentall (Animal Cognition, 17: 1019-1022, 2014) reported similar sub-optimal choice behavior in dogs using a simultaneous choice procedure. Given a choice between a single high-value food item (cheese) or an equivalent high-value item plus a lower-value food item (carrot), their dogs chose the individual item. In a subsequent test, the dogs preferred two high-value items to a single high-value item, suggesting that avoidance of multiple items did not cause the sub-optimal choice behavior. In two experiments, we replicated Pattison and Zentall's procedure while including additional controls. In Experiment 1, habituation of neophobia for multiple items was controlled for by intermixing the two types of test trial within a single experimental session. In Experiment 2, we controlled for avoidance of heterogeneous rewards by including test trials in which a choice was offered between the combination of items and a single low-value item. In both experiments we observed sub-optimal choice behavior which could not be explained by either of these putative mechanisms. Our results, as well as those of Pattison and Zentall, are consistent with the suggestion that dogs' assessment of the total value of multiple items is based, at least partly, on their average quality.
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Chow JJ, Smith AP, Wilson AG, Zentall TR, Beckmann JS. Suboptimal choice in rats: Incentive salience attribution promotes maladaptive decision-making. Behav Brain Res 2017; 320:244-254. [PMID: 27993692 PMCID: PMC5241164 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2016.12.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Revised: 12/10/2016] [Accepted: 12/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Stimuli that are more predictive of subsequent reward also function as better conditioned reinforcers. Moreover, stimuli attributed with incentive salience function as more robust conditioned reinforcers. Some theories have suggested that conditioned reinforcement plays an important role in promoting suboptimal choice behavior, like gambling. The present experiments examined how different stimuli, those attributed with incentive salience versus those without, can function in tandem with stimulus-reward predictive utility to promote maladaptive decision-making in rats. One group of rats had lights associated with goal-tracking as the reward-predictive stimuli and another had levers associated with sign-tracking as the reward-predictive stimuli. All rats were first trained on a choice procedure in which the expected value across both alternatives was equivalent but differed in their stimulus-reward predictive utility. Next, the expected value across both alternatives was systematically changed so that the alternative with greater stimulus-reward predictive utility was suboptimal in regard to primary reinforcement. The results demonstrate that in order to obtain suboptimal choice behavior, incentive salience alongside strong stimulus-reward predictive utility may be necessary; thus, maladaptive decision-making can be driven more by the value attributed to stimuli imbued with incentive salience that reliably predict a reward rather than the reward itself.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan J Chow
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536 USA.
| | - Aaron P Smith
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536 USA.
| | - A George Wilson
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536 USA; Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 173 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC, 29425 USA.
| | - Thomas R Zentall
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536 USA.
| | - Joshua S Beckmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 741 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY, 40536 USA.
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McDevitt MA, Dunn RM, Spetch ML, Ludvig EA. When good news leads to bad choices. J Exp Anal Behav 2016; 105:23-40. [PMID: 26781050 DOI: 10.1002/jeab.192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2015] [Accepted: 11/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Pigeons and other animals sometimes deviate from optimal choice behavior when given informative signals for delayed outcomes. For example, when pigeons are given a choice between an alternative that always leads to food after a delay and an alternative that leads to food only half of the time after a delay, preference changes dramatically depending on whether the stimuli during the delays are correlated with (signal) the outcomes or not. With signaled outcomes, pigeons show a much greater preference for the suboptimal alternative than with unsignaled outcomes. Key variables and research findings related to this phenomenon are reviewed, including the effects of durations of the choice and delay periods, probability of reinforcement, and gaps in the signal. We interpret the available evidence as reflecting a preference induced by signals for good news in a context of uncertainty. Other explanations are briefly summarized and compared.
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Pisklak JM, McDevitt MA, Dunn RM, Spetch ML. When good pigeons make bad decisions: Choice with probabilistic delays and outcomes. J Exp Anal Behav 2016; 104:241-51. [PMID: 26676182 DOI: 10.1002/jeab.177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2015] [Accepted: 11/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Pigeons chose between an (optimal) alternative that sometimes provided food after a 10-s delay and other times after a 40-s delay and another (suboptimal) alternative that sometimes provided food after 10 s but other times no food after 40 s. When outcomes were not signaled during the delays, pigeons strongly preferred the optimal alternative. When outcomes were signaled, choices of the suboptimal alternative increased and most pigeons preferred the alternative that provided no food after the long delay despite the cost in terms of obtained food. The pattern of results was similar whether the short delays occurred on 25% or 50% of the trials. Shortening the 40-s delay to food sharply reduced suboptimal choices, but shortening the delay to no food had little effect. The results suggest that a signaled delay to no food does not punish responding in probabilistic choice procedures. The findings are discussed in terms of conditioned reinforcement by signals for good news.
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Hallyburton A. A conceptual approach to practitioners’ health information literacy. REFERENCE SERVICES REVIEW 2016. [DOI: 10.1108/rsr-02-2016-0006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine healthcare professionals’ own health literacy through the lenses of information behavior and evidence-based practice. These practitioners’ health information literacy is critical to client care.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper applies general and professional-specific models of information behavior and issues of bias to methods in which healthcare practitioners seek, evaluate and use research information within professional practice.
Findings
Case examples from library, medical and the broader healthcare literature are used to explore ways in which care professionals’ information behaviors align with or deviate from information behavior models and the role of different types of bias in their information behavior. Adaption of evidence-based practice precepts, already familiar to healthcare professionals, is proposed as a method to improve practitioners’ health information literacy.
Originality/value
Explorations of “health literacy” have primarily focused on healthcare consumers’ interactions with basic health information and services. The health literacy (and health information literacy) of care practitioners has received much less attention. By gaining a greater understanding of how information behaviors intersect with healthcare practitioners’ own health literacy, the librarians and educators who serve future and current care professionals can offer more informed information literacy instruction, enabling practitioners to provide improved patient care.
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Magalhães P, Geoffrey White K. The sunk cost effect across species: A review of persistence in a course of action due to prior investment. J Exp Anal Behav 2016; 105:339-61. [DOI: 10.1002/jeab.202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2016] [Accepted: 03/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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Connolly NP, Kim JS, Tunstall BJ, Kearns DN. A test of stress, cues, and re-exposure to large wins as potential reinstaters of suboptimal decision making in rats. Front Psychol 2015; 6:394. [PMID: 25904885 PMCID: PMC4387858 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2014] [Accepted: 03/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The present experiment investigated potential reinstaters of suboptimal economic decision making in rats. Rats were first trained on a version of the rat Gambling Task under conditions designed to promote choice of a suboptimal option that occasionally resulted in large “wins” (four sucrose pellets). In a second phase, preference for this economically suboptimal option was reduced by substantially increasing the probability of punishment when this option was chosen. Then, three events were tested for their ability to reinstate choice of the suboptimal option. A brief period of re-exposure to a high frequency of large wins significantly increased choice of the suboptimal option. The pharmacological stressor yohimbine did not reinstate suboptimal choice, but did increase impulsive action as indexed by premature responding. Presentation of cues previously associated with large wins did not alter behavior. Results suggest reinstaters of suboptimal choice may differ from reinstaters of extinguished drug- and food-seeking behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina P Connolly
- Department of Psychology, American University , Washington, DC, USA
| | - Jung S Kim
- Department of Psychology, American University , Washington, DC, USA
| | | | - David N Kearns
- Department of Psychology, American University , Washington, DC, USA
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Brown MF. Cognitive behaviorism: A tribute to the contributions of Thomas Zentall. Behav Processes 2015; 112:1-2. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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17
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White KG, Magalhães P. The sunk cost effect in pigeons and people: a case of within-trials contrast? Behav Processes 2014; 112:22-8. [PMID: 25305066 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2014] [Revised: 09/16/2014] [Accepted: 09/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Pigeons show the sunk cost effect in procedures in which their choice between two outcomes is biased by a prior investment. We review recent studies of the sunk cost effect in pigeons, in which choice procedures are analogous to studies with humans using hypothetical scenarios to make explicit a prior investment and the later choice. Zentall's (2010) theory of within-trial contrast can account for the sunk cost effect - an effortful prior investment contrasts with choice outcomes to increase the value of the outcome in which the prior investment was made. The account correctly predicts that in both pigeons and humans, increased prior investment increases the sunk cost effect. We present data from a study with humans using hypothetical scenarios in which delay was varied between the time of the prior investment and later choice. Extending the delay reduced the sunk cost effect, suggesting the need for a second process by which value is depreciated, in addition to the value-enhancing effect of contrast. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Tribute to Tom Zentall.
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