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Visocky V, Turner CJ, Lowrie MH, Alibro A, Messanvi F, Chudasama Y. Noradrenergic modulation of stress induced catecholamine release: Opposing influence of FG7142 and yohimbine. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.09.593389. [PMID: 38766011 PMCID: PMC11100835 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.09.593389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Life stress modulates decision making, particularly in the face of risk, in some cases prompting vulnerable populations to make suboptimal, life-altering choices. In the brain, stress is known to alter the extracellular release of catecholamines in structures such as basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc), but the relationship between catecholamines and decision-making behavior under stress has not been systemically explored. METHODS We developed an operant touchscreen decision-making task for rats comprising elements of loss aversion and risk seeking behavior. Rats were first injected systemically with an adrenergic alpha 2A-receptor agonist (guanfacine) and antagonist (yohimbine), as well as a partial inverse GABAA agonist, FG 7142, known to induce anxiety and stress related physiological responses in a variety of species, including humans. We then used fiber photometry to monitor NE in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), and DA activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) while animals engaged in decision-making and following systemic injections of FG 7142 and yohimbine. RESULTS Neither yohimbine nor guanfacine had any impact on decision making strategy but altered motivational state with yohimbine making the animal almost insensitive to the reward outcome. The pharmacological induction of stress with FG 7142 biased the rats decisions towards safety, but this bias shifted toward risk when co-treated with yohimbine. In the BLA and NAc, the FG 7142 altered catecholamine release, with systemic yohimbine producing opposing effects on NE and DA release. CONCLUSIONS Stress induced changes in catecholamine release in the BLA and NAc can directly influence loss sensitivity, decisions and motivation, which can be modulated by the alpha 2A adrenoceptor antagonist, yohimbine.
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Molins F, Gil-Gómez JA, Serrano MÁ, Mesa-Gresa P. An ecological assessment of decision-making under risk and ambiguity through the virtual serious game Kalliste Decision Task. Sci Rep 2024; 14:13144. [PMID: 38849446 PMCID: PMC11161587 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63752-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/31/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Traditional methods for evaluating decision-making provide valuable insights yet may fall short in capturing the complexity of this cognitive capacity, often providing insufficient for the multifaceted nature of decisions. The Kalliste Decision Task (KDT) is introduced as a comprehensive, ecologically valid tool aimed at bridging this gap, offering a holistic perspective on decision-making. In our study, 81 participants completed KDT alongside established tasks and questionnaires, including the Mixed Gamble Task (MGT), Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and Stimulating & Instrumental Risk Questionnaire (S&IRQ). They also completed the User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire (USEQ). The results showed excellent usability, with high USEQ scores, highlighting the user-friendliness of KDT. Importantly, KDT outcomes showed significant correlations with classical decision-making variables, shedding light on participants' risk attitudes (S&IRQ), rule-based decision-making (MGT), and performance in ambiguous contexts (IGT). Moreover, hierarchical clustering analysis of KDT scores categorized participants into three distinct profiles, revealing significant differences between them on classical measures. The findings highlight KDT as a valuable tool for assessing decision-making, addressing limitations of traditional methods, and offering a comprehensive, ecologically valid approach that aligns with the complexity and heterogeneity of real-world decision-making, advancing research and providing insights for understanding and assessing decision-making across multiple domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Molins
- Department of Psychobiology, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 13, 46010, Valencia, Spain
| | - José-Antonio Gil-Gómez
- Instituto Universitario de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel Serrano
- Department of Psychobiology, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 13, 46010, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Patricia Mesa-Gresa
- Department of Psychobiology, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 13, 46010, Valencia, Spain
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Mochizuki Y, Harasawa N, Aggarwal M, Chen C, Fukuda H. Foraging in a non-foraging task: Fitness maximization explains human risk preference dynamics under changing environment. PLoS Comput Biol 2024; 20:e1012080. [PMID: 38739672 PMCID: PMC11115364 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Changes in risk preference have been reported when making a series of independent risky choices or non-foraging economic decisions. Behavioral economics has put forward various explanations for specific changes in risk preference in non-foraging tasks, but a consensus regarding the general principle underlying these effects has not been reached. In contrast, recent studies have investigated human economic risky choices using tasks adapted from foraging theory, which require consideration of past choices and future opportunities to make optimal decisions. In these foraging tasks, human economic risky choices are explained by the ethological principle of fitness maximization, which naturally leads to dynamic risk preference. Here, we conducted two online experiments to investigate whether the principle of fitness maximization can explain risk preference dynamics in a non-foraging task. Participants were asked to make a series of independent risky economic decisions while the environmental richness changed. We found that participants' risk preferences were influenced by the current and past environments, making them more risk-averse during and after the rich environment compared to the poor environment. These changes in risk preference align with fitness maximization. Our findings suggest that the ethological principle of fitness maximization might serve as a generalizable principle for explaining dynamic preferences, including risk preference, in human economic decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Chong Chen
- Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan
| | - Haruaki Fukuda
- Graduate School of Business Administration, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan
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4
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Martínez M, Schöndorfer S, Robinson LM, Brosnan SF, Range F. Some dogs can find the payoff-dominant outcome in the Assurance game. iScience 2024; 27:108698. [PMID: 38205239 PMCID: PMC10776926 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Studies on coordination often present animals with the choice of either cooperating or remaining inactive; however, in nature, animals may also choose to act alone. This can be modeled with the Assurance game, an economic game that has recently been used to explore decision-making in primates. We investigated whether dyads of pet dogs coordinate in the Assurance game. Pairs were presented with two alternatives: they could individually solve an apparatus baited with a low-value reward (Hare) or they could coordinate to solve a cooperative apparatus baited with a high-value reward for each dog (Stag). All individuals matched their partner's choices, but after controlling for side bias, only four out of eleven dyads consistently coordinated on the payoff-dominant strategy (Stag-Stag). Thus, some dogs are capable of finding coordinated outcomes, as do primates, at least when their partner's actions are visible and coordination results in the biggest payoff for both individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayte Martínez
- Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna 1160, Austria
- Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
| | - Selina Schöndorfer
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1030, Austria
| | - Lauren M. Robinson
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
| | - Sarah F. Brosnan
- Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
- Departments of Psychology and Philosophy, Neuroscience Institute, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
| | - Friederike Range
- Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna 1160, Austria
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Miller R, Davies JR, Schiestl M, Garcia-Pelegrin E, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. Social influences on delayed gratification in New Caledonian crows and Eurasian jays. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0289197. [PMID: 38055711 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Self-control underlies goal-directed behaviour in humans and other animals. Delayed gratification - a measure of self-control - requires the ability to tolerate delays and/or invest more effort to obtain a reward of higher value over one of lower value, such as food or mates. Social context, in particular, the presence of competitors, may influence delayed gratification. We adapted the 'rotating-tray' paradigm, where subjects need to forgo an immediate, lower-quality (i.e. less preferred) reward for a delayed, higher-quality (i.e. more preferred) one, to test social influences on delayed gratification in two corvid species: New Caledonian crows and Eurasian jays. We compared choices for immediate vs. delayed rewards while alone, in the presence of a competitive conspecific and in the presence of a non-competitive conspecific. We predicted that, given the increased risk of losing a reward with a competitor present, both species would similarly, flexibly alter their choices in the presence of a conspecific compared to when alone. We found that species differed: jays were more likely to select the immediate, less preferred reward than the crows. We also found that jays were more likely to select the immediate, less preferred reward when a competitor or non-competitor was present than when alone, or when a competitor was present compared to a non-competitor, while the crows selected the delayed, highly preferred reward irrespective of social presence. We discuss our findings in relation to species differences in socio-ecological factors related to adult sociality and food-caching (storing). New Caledonian crows are more socially tolerant and moderate cachers, while Eurasian jays are highly territorial and intense cachers that may have evolved under the social context of cache pilfering and cache protection strategies. Therefore, flexibility (or inflexibility) in delay of gratification under different social contexts may relate to the species' social tolerance and related risk of competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael Miller
- School of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - James R Davies
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Martina Schiestl
- Faculty for Veterinary Medicine, University of Veterinary Science, Brno, South Moravia, Czech Republic
| | | | - Russell D Gray
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, Jena, Germany
| | - Alex H Taylor
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
- School of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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6
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Rosati AG, Thompson ME, Atencia R, Buckholtz JW. Distinct developmental trajectories for risky and impulsive decision-making in chimpanzees. J Exp Psychol Gen 2023; 152:1551-1564. [PMID: 36689365 PMCID: PMC10271938 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Human adolescence is characterized by a suite of changes in decision-making and emotional regulation that promote risky and impulsive behavior. Accumulating evidence suggests that behavioral and physiological shifts seen in human adolescence are shared by some primates, yet it is unclear if the same cognitive mechanisms are recruited. We examined developmental changes in risky choice, intertemporal choice, and emotional responses to decision outcomes in chimpanzees, our closest-living relatives. We found that adolescent chimpanzees were more risk-seeking than adults, as in humans. However, chimpanzees showed no developmental change in intertemporal choice, unlike humans, although younger chimpanzees did exhibit elevated emotional reactivity to waiting compared to adults. Comparisons of cortisol and testosterone indicated robust age-related variation in these biomarkers, and patterns of individual differences in choices, emotional reactivity, and hormones also supported a developmental dissociation between risk and choice impulsivity. These results show that some but not all core features of human adolescent decision-making are shared with chimpanzees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra G. Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
| | | | - Rebeca Atencia
- Jane Goodall Institute Congo, Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo
| | - Joshua W. Buckholtz
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA USA
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7
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Brosnan SF, Wilson BJ. Comparative economics: how studying other primates helps us better understand the evolution of our own economic decision making. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210497. [PMID: 36934757 PMCID: PMC10024989 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 03/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The origins of evolutionary games are rooted in both economics and animal behaviour, but economics has, until recently, focused primarily on humans. Although historically, specific games were used in targeted circumstances with non-human species (i.e. the Prisoner's Dilemma), experimental economics has been increasingly recognized as a valuable method for directly comparing both the outcomes of economic decisions and their underlying mechanisms across species, particularly in comparison with humans, thanks to the structured procedures that allow for them to be instantiated across a variety of animals. So far, results in non-human primates suggest that even when outcomes are shared, underlying proximate mechanisms can vary substantially. Intriguingly, in some contexts non-human primates more easily find a Nash equilibrium than do humans, possibly owing to their greater willingness to explore the parameter space, but humans excel at more complex outcomes, such as alternating between two Nash equilibria, even when deprived of language or instruction, suggesting potential mechanisms that humans have evolved to allow us to solve complex social problems. We consider what these results suggest about the evolution of economic decision-making and suggest future directions, in particular the need to expand taxonomic diversity, to expand this promising approach. This article is part of the theme issue 'Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah F. Brosnan
- Departments of Psychology & Philosophy, Neuroscience Institute, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, and the Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Bart J. Wilson
- Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy & Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA
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8
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Ilan Y. Constrained disorder principle-based variability is fundamental for biological processes: Beyond biological relativity and physiological regulatory networks. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2023; 180-181:37-48. [PMID: 37068713 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2023.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Revised: 03/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
Abstract
The constrained disorder principle (CDP) defines systems based on their degree of disorder bounded by dynamic boundaries. The principle explains stochasticity in living and non-living systems. Denis Noble described the importance of stochasticity in biology, emphasizing stochastic processes at molecular, cellular, and higher levels in organisms as having a role beyond simple noise. The CDP and Noble's theories (NT) claim that biological systems use stochasticity. This paper presents the CDP and NT, discussing common notions and differences between the two theories. The paper presents the CDP-based concept of taking the disorder beyond its role in nature to correct malfunctions of systems and improve the efficiency of biological systems. The use of CDP-based algorithms embedded in second-generation artificial intelligence platforms is described. In summary, noise is inherent to complex systems and has a functional role. The CDP provides the option of using noise to improve functionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaron Ilan
- Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University, Department of Medicine, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
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9
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Haux LM, Engelmann JM, Arslan RC, Hertwig R, Herrmann E. Chimpanzee and Human Risk Preferences Show Key Similarities. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:358-369. [PMID: 36595467 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221140326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Risk preference impacts how people make key life decisions related to health, wealth, and well-being. Systematic variations in risk-taking behavior can be the result of differences in fitness expectations, as predicted by life-history theory. Yet the evolutionary roots of human risk-taking behavior remain poorly understood. Here, we studied risk preferences of chimpanzees (86 Pan troglodytes; 47 females; age = 2-40 years) using a multimethod approach that combined observer ratings with behavioral choice experiments. We found that chimpanzees' willingness to take risks shared structural similarities with that of humans. First, chimpanzees' risk preference manifested as a traitlike preference that was consistent across domains and measurements. Second, chimpanzees were ambiguity averse. Third, males were more risk prone than females. Fourth, the appetite for risk showed an inverted-U-shaped relation to age and peaked in young adulthood. Our findings suggest that key dimensions of risk preference appear to emerge independently of the influence of human cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lou M Haux
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
| | - Jan M Engelmann
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
| | - Ruben C Arslan
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
| | - Ralph Hertwig
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
| | - Esther Herrmann
- Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth
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Moeller S, Unakafov AM, Fischer J, Gail A, Treue S, Kagan I. Human and macaque pairs employ different coordination strategies in a transparent decision game. eLife 2023; 12:81641. [PMID: 36633125 PMCID: PMC9937648 DOI: 10.7554/elife.81641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Many real-world decisions in social contexts are made while observing a partner's actions. To study dynamic interactions during such decisions, we developed a setup where two agents seated face-to-face to engage in game-theoretical tasks on a shared transparent touchscreen display ('transparent games'). We compared human and macaque pairs in a transparent version of the coordination game 'Bach-or-Stravinsky', which entails a conflict about which of two individually-preferred opposing options to choose to achieve coordination. Most human pairs developed coordinated behavior and adopted dynamic turn-taking to equalize the payoffs. All macaque pairs converged on simpler, static coordination. Remarkably, two animals learned to coordinate dynamically after training with a human confederate. This pair selected the faster agent's preferred option, exhibiting turn-taking behavior that was captured by modeling the visibility of the partner's action before one's own movement. Such competitive turn-taking was unlike the prosocial turn-taking in humans, who equally often initiated switches to and from their preferred option. Thus, the dynamic coordination is not restricted to humans but can occur on the background of different social attitudes and cognitive capacities in rhesus monkeys. Overall, our results illustrate how action visibility promotes the emergence and maintenance of coordination when agents can observe and time their mutual actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Moeller
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
| | - Anton M Unakafov
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
- Georg-Elias-Müller-Institute of Psychology, University of GottingenGöttingenGermany
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-OrganizationGöttingenGermany
- Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological NetworksGottingenGermany
| | - Julia Fischer
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Department of Primate Cognition, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of GottingenGöttingenGermany
| | - Alexander Gail
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
- Georg-Elias-Müller-Institute of Psychology, University of GottingenGöttingenGermany
- Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceGöttingenGermany
| | - Stefan Treue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
- Georg-Elias-Müller-Institute of Psychology, University of GottingenGöttingenGermany
- Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceGöttingenGermany
| | - Igor Kagan
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate ResearchGöttingenGermany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate CognitionGöttingenGermany
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11
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Schnell AK, Boeckle M, Clayton NS. Waiting for a better possibility: delay of gratification in corvids and its relationship to other cognitive capacities. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210348. [PMID: 36314150 PMCID: PMC9620750 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-control, the ability to resist temptation and wait for better but delayed possibilities, is an important cognitive skill that underpins decision-making and planning. The capacity to exert self-control has been linked to intelligence in humans, chimpanzees and most recently cuttlefish. Here, we presented 10 Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, with a delayed maintenance task, which measured the ability to choose a preferred outcome as well as the ability to sustain the delay prior to that outcome. Jays were able to wait for better possibilities, but maximum wait times varied across the subjects. We also presented them with five cognitive tasks that assessed spatial memory, spatial relationships and learning capacity. These tasks are commonly used as measures of general intelligence within an ecological context. Individual performance was correlated across the cognitive tasks, which suggests that there was a general intelligence factor underlying their performance. Performance in these tasks was correlated significantly with the jays' capacity to wait for better possibilities. This study demonstrates that self-control and intelligence are correlated in jays. The fact that this correlation exists in diverse species suggests that self-control is a fundamental feature of cognition. Our results are discussed in the context of convergent evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Markus Boeckle
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
- Scientific Working Group, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, D.O.T. - Die offene Tür (The open door), Krems, Austria
| | - Nicola S. Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
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Hayden BY, Park HS, Zimmermann J. Automated pose estimation in primates. Am J Primatol 2022; 84:e23348. [PMID: 34855257 PMCID: PMC9160209 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the behavior of primates is important for primatology, for psychology, and for biology more broadly. It is also important for biomedicine, where primates are an important model organism, and whose behavior is often an important variable of interest. Our ability to rigorously quantify behavior has, however, long been limited. On one hand, we can rigorously quantify low-information measures like preference, looking time, and reaction time; on the other, we can use more gestalt measures like behavioral categories tracked via ethogram, but at high cost and with high variability. Recent technological advances have led to a major revolution in behavioral measurement that offers affordable and scalable rigor. Specifically, digital video cameras and automated pose tracking software can provide measures of full-body position (i.e., pose) of primates over time (i.e., behavior) with high spatial and temporal resolution. Pose-tracking technology in turn can be used to infer behavioral states, such as eating, sleeping, and mating. We call this technological approach behavioral imaging. In this review, we situate the behavioral imaging revolution in the history of the study of behavior, argue for investment in and development of analytical and research techniques that can profit from the advent of the era of big behavior, and propose that primate centers and zoos will take on a more central role in relevant fields of research than they have in the past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Y. Hayden
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering
| | - Hyun Soo Park
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN 55455
| | - Jan Zimmermann
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering
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Brucks D, Härterich A, König von Borstel U. Horses wait for more and better rewards in a delay of gratification paradigm. Front Psychol 2022; 13:954472. [PMID: 35936272 PMCID: PMC9355425 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.954472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-control, defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favor of better pay-offs in the future, has been extensively studied, revealing enormous variation between and within species. Horses are interesting in this regard because as a grazing species they are expected to show low self-control whereas its social complexity might be linked to high self-control abilities. Additionally, self-control may be a key factor in training and/or coping with potentially stressful husbandry conditions. We assessed horses’ self-control abilities in a simplified delay of gratification test that can be easily implemented in a farm setting. In Experiment 1, we gave horses (N = 52) the choice between an immediately available low-quality reward and a delayed high-quality reward that could only be obtained if the horse refrained from consuming the immediate reward. Different experimenters (N = 30) that underwent prior training in the procedures, tested horses in two test phases either with their eyes visible or invisible (sunglasses). Twenty horses waited up to the maximum delay stage of 60 s while all horses performed worse in the second test phase. In Experiment 2, we improved the test procedure (i.e., one experimenter, refined criterion for success), and tested 30 additional horses in a quality and quantity condition (one reward vs. delayed bigger reward). Two horses successfully waited for 60 s (quality: N = 1, quantity: N = 1). Horses tolerated higher delays, if they were first tested in the quantity condition. Furthermore, horses that were fed hay ad libitum, instead of in a restricted manner, reached higher delays. Coping behaviors (e.g., looking away, head movements, pawing, and increasing distance to reward) facilitated waiting success and horses were able to anticipate the upcoming delay duration as indicated by non-random distributions of giving-up times. We found no correlations between owner-assessed traits (e.g., trainability and patience) and individual performance in the test. These results suggest that horses are able to exert self-control in a delay of gratification paradigm similar to other domesticated species. Our simplified paradigm could be used to gather large scale data, e.g., to investigate the role of self-control in trainability or success in equestrian sports.
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Christensen JF, Farahi F, Vartanian M, Yazdi SHN. Choice Hygiene for "Consumer Neuroscientists"? Ethical Considerations and Proposals for Future Endeavours. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:612639. [PMID: 35769947 PMCID: PMC9234163 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.612639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Is the use of psychological and neuroscientific methods for neuromarketing research always aligned with the principles of ethical research practice? Some neuromarketing endeavours have passed from informing consumers about available options, to helping to market as many products to consumers as possible. Needs are being engineered, using knowledge about the human brain to increase consumption further, regardless of individual, societal and environmental needs and capacities. In principle, the ground ethical principle of any scientist is to further individual, societal and environmental health and well-being with their work. If their findings can be used for the opposite, this must be part of the scientist's considerations before engaging in such research and to make sure that the risks for misuse are minimised. Against this backdrop, we provide a series of real-life examples and a non-exhaustive literature review, to discuss in what way some practices in the neuromarketing domain may violate the Helsinki Declaration of Experimentation with Human Subjects. This declaration was set out to regulate biomedical research, but has since its inception been applied internationally also to behavioural and social research. We illustrate, point by point, how these ground ethical principles should be applied also to the neuromarketing domain. Indisputably, the growth in consumption is required due to current prevalent economical models. Thus, in the final part of the paper, we discuss how alternative models may be promotable to a larger public, aided by more ethical marketing endeavours, based on neuroscientific discoveries about the human brain. We propose this as a philosophical question, a point of discussion for the future, to make neuromarketing as a discipline, fit for the future, respecting the ethical implications of this research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia F. Christensen
- Department for Language and Literature, Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany
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15
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Pothos EM, Pleskac TJ. Rethinking Rationality. Top Cogn Sci 2022; 14:451-466. [PMID: 35261177 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12585] [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: 05/17/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We seek to understand rational decision making and if it exists whether finite (bounded) agents may be able to achieve its principles. This aim has been a singular objective throughout much of human science and philosophy, with early discussions identified since antiquity. More recently, there has been a thriving debate based on differing perspectives on rationality, including adaptive heuristics, Bayesian theory, quantum theory, resource rationality, and probabilistic language of thought. Are these perspectives on rationality mutually exclusive? Are they all needed? Do they undermine an aim to have rational standards in decision situations like politics, medicine, legal proceedings, and others, where there is an expectation and need for decision making as close to "optimal" as possible? This special issue brings together representative contributions from the currently predominant views on rationality, with a view to evaluate progress on these and related questions.
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Kusev P, Schaik P, Teal J, Martin R, Hall L, Johansson P. How false feedback influences decision‐makers' risk preferences. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.2278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Petko Kusev
- Behavioural Research Centre, Huddersfield Business School University of Huddersfield Huddersfield UK
| | - Paul Schaik
- Department of Psychology Teesside University Middlesbrough UK
| | - Joseph Teal
- Behavioural Research Centre, Huddersfield Business School University of Huddersfield Huddersfield UK
| | - Rose Martin
- Department of People and Organisations, Surrey Business School University of Surrey Guildford UK
| | - Lars Hall
- Lund University Cognitive Science Lund University Lund Sweden
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Ott T, Masset P, Gouvêa TS, Kepecs A. Apparent sunk cost effect in rational agents. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabi7004. [PMID: 35148186 PMCID: PMC8836799 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Rational decision makers aim to maximize their gains, but humans and other animals often fail to do so, exhibiting biases and distortions in their choice behavior. In a recent study of economic decisions, humans, mice, and rats were reported to succumb to the sunk cost fallacy, making decisions based on irrecoverable past investments to the detriment of expected future returns. We challenge this interpretation because it is subject to a statistical fallacy, a form of attrition bias, and the observed behavior can be explained without invoking a sunk cost-dependent mechanism. Using a computational model, we illustrate how a rational decision maker with a reward-maximizing decision strategy reproduces the reported behavioral pattern and propose an improved task design to dissociate sunk costs from fluctuations in decision valuation. Similar statistical confounds may be common in analyses of cognitive behaviors, highlighting the need to use causal statistical inference and generative models for interpretation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Torben Ott
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Paul Masset
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Thiago S. Gouvêa
- German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Adam Kepecs
- Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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Droege P, Schwob N, Weiss DJ. Fishnition: Developing Models From Cognition Toward Consciousness. Front Vet Sci 2021; 8:785256. [PMID: 34977218 PMCID: PMC8714737 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.785256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
A challenge to developing a model for testing animal consciousness is the pull of opposite intuitions. On one extreme, the anthropocentric view holds that consciousness is a highly sophisticated capacity involving self-reflection and conceptual categorization that is almost certainly exclusive to humans. At the opposite extreme, an anthropomorphic view attributes consciousness broadly to any behavior that involves sensory responsiveness. Yet human experience and observation of diverse species suggest that the most plausible case is that consciousness functions between these poles. In exploring the middle ground, we discuss the pros and cons of "high level" approaches such as the dual systems approach. According to this model, System 1 can be thought of as unconscious; processing is fast, automatic, associative, heuristic, parallel, contextual, and likely to be conserved across species. Consciousness is associated with System 2 processing that is slow, effortful, rule-based, serial, abstract, and exclusively human. An advantage of this model is the clear contrast between heuristic and decision-based responses, but it fails to include contextual decision-making in novel conditions which falls in between these two categories. We also review a "low level" model involving trace conditioning, which is a trained response to the first of two paired stimuli separated by an interval. This model highlights the role of consciousness in maintaining a stimulus representation over a temporal span, though it overlooks the importance of attention in subserving and also disrupting trace conditioning in humans. Through a critical analysis of these two extremes, we will develop the case for flexible behavioral response to the stimulus environment as the best model for demonstrating animal consciousness. We discuss a methodology for gauging flexibility across a wide variety of species and offer a case study in spatial navigation to illustrate our proposal. Flexibility serves the evolutionary function of enabling the complex evaluation of changing conditions, where motivation is the basis for goal valuation, and attention selects task-relevant stimuli to aid decision-making processes. We situate this evolutionary function within the Temporal Representation Theory of consciousness, which proposes that consciousness represents the present moment in order to facilitate flexible action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paula Droege
- Department of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
| | - Natalie Schwob
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
| | - Daniel J. Weiss
- Department of Psychology and Program in Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
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Time to AIR OUT the Bias From Extubation Decision-Making. Crit Care Med 2021; 49:2146-2149. [PMID: 34793382 DOI: 10.1097/ccm.0000000000005138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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20
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Brustkern J, Heinrichs M, Walker M, Schiller B. Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men. Sci Rep 2021; 11:22475. [PMID: 34795328 PMCID: PMC8602253 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01775-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Trust is essential in initiating social relationships. Due to the differential evolution of sex hormones as well as the fitness burdens of producing offspring, evaluations of a potential mating partner's trustworthiness likely differ across sexes. Here, we explore unknown sex-specific effects of facial attractiveness and threat on trusting other-sex individuals. Ninety-three participants (singles; 46 women) attracted by the other sex performed an incentivized trust game. They had to decide whether to trust individuals of the other sex represented by a priori-created face stimuli gradually varying in the intensities of both attractiveness and threat. Male and female participants trusted attractive and unthreatening-looking individuals more often. However, whereas male participants' trust behavior was affected equally by attractiveness and threat, female participants' trust behavior was more strongly affected by threat than by attractiveness. This indicates that a partner's high facial attractiveness might compensate for high facial threat in male but not female participants. Our findings suggest that men and women prioritize attractiveness and threat differentially, with women paying relatively more attention to threat cues inversely signaling parental investment than to attractiveness cues signaling reproductive fitness. This difference might be attributable to an evolutionary, biologically sex-specific decision regarding parental investment and reproduction behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Brustkern
- Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Str. 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Markus Heinrichs
- Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Str. 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Mirella Walker
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 60/62, 4055, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Bastian Schiller
- Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Str. 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
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21
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Intra- and interspecific variation in self-control capacities of parrots in a delay of gratification task. Anim Cogn 2021; 25:473-491. [PMID: 34671864 PMCID: PMC8940755 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01565-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Forgoing immediate satisfaction for higher pay-offs in the future (delayed gratification) could be adaptive in situations that wild animals may encounter. To explain species-differences in self-control, hypotheses based on social complexity, feeding ecology, brain size and metabolic rate have been proposed. To explore these hypotheses in a comparative setting, we tested three macaw species (neotropical parrots)—great green macaws (N = 8), blue-throated macaws (N = 6), blue-headed macaws (N = 6)—and the distantly related African grey parrots (afrotropical parrots; N = 8) in a modified rotating tray task, in which subjects are required to inhibit consuming a constantly available low-quality reward in favour of a high-quality reward that becomes available only after an increasing delay (min. 5 s, max. 60 s). All four species successfully waited for a minimum of 8.3 s ± 11.7 s (group level mean ± SD) with African greys reaching a delay of 29.4 ± 15.2 s, and great green macaws—as best performing macaw species—tolerating delays of 20 s ± 8 s. The best performing African grey individual reached a maximum delay of 50 s, whereas, a great green and a blue-throated macaw tolerated a delay of 30 s max. Females tolerated higher maximum delays than males. Engaging in distraction behaviours enhanced waiting performance across species and all birds were able to anticipate the waiting duration. Our results suggest that both feeding and socio-ecological complexity may be a factor in self-control, but further systematically collected comparative data on self-control of different (parrot) species are required to test the evolutionary hypotheses rigorously.
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22
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Bujold PM, Ferrari-Toniolo S, Schultz W. Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys. Cognition 2021; 214:104764. [PMID: 34000666 PMCID: PMC8346953 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated how the experience of different reward distributions would shape the utility functions that can be inferred from economic choice. Despite the generally accepted notion that utility functions are not insensitive to external references, the exact way in which such changes take place remains largely unknown. Here we benefitted from the capacity to engage in thorough and prolonged empirical tests of economic choice by one of our evolutionary cousins, the rhesus macaque. We analyzed data from thousands of binary choices and found that the animals' preferences changed depending on the statistics of rewards experienced in the past (up to weeks) and that these changes could reflect monkeys' adapting their expectations of reward. The utility functions we elicited from their choices stretched and shifted over several months of sequential changes in the mean and range of rewards that the macaques experienced. However, this adaptation was usually incomplete, suggesting that - even after months - past experiences held weight when monkeys' assigned value to future rewards. Rather than having stable and fixed preferences assumed by normative economic models, our results demonstrate that rhesus macaques flexibly shape their preferences around the past and present statistics of their environment. That is, rather than relying on a singular reference-point, reference-dependent preferences are likely to capture a monkey's range of expectations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipe M Bujold
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DY, United Kingdom.
| | - Simone Ferrari-Toniolo
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DY, United Kingdom
| | - Wolfram Schultz
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DY, United Kingdom.
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23
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Over-representation of fundamental decision variables in the prefrontal cortex underlies decision bias. Neurosci Res 2021; 173:1-13. [PMID: 34274406 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2021.07.002] [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: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The brain is organized into anatomically distinct structures consisting of a variety of projection neurons. While such evolutionarily conserved neural circuit organization underlies the innate ability of animals to swiftly adapt to environments, they can cause biased cognition and behavior. Although recent studies have begun to address the causal importance of projection-neuron types as distinct computational units, it remains unclear how projection types are functionally organized in encoding variables during cognitive tasks. This review focuses on the neural computation of decision making in the prefrontal cortex and discusses what decision variables are encoded by single neurons, neuronal populations, and projection type, alongside how specific projection types constrain decision making. We focus particularly on "over-representations" of distinct decision variables in the prefrontal cortex that reflect the biological and subjective significance of the variables for the decision makers. We suggest that task-specific over-representation in the prefrontal cortex involves the refinement of the given decision making, while generalized over-representation of fundamental decision variables is associated with suboptimal decision biases, including pathological ones such as those in patients with psychiatric disorders. Such over-representation of the fundamental decision variables in the prefrontal cortex appear to be tightly constrained by afferent and efferent connections that can be optogenetically intervened on. These ideas may provide critical insights into potential therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders, including addiction and depression.
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24
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Liu X, Eickhoff SB, Caspers S, Wu J, Genon S, Hoffstaedter F, Mars RB, Sommer IE, Eickhoff CR, Chen J, Jardri R, Reetz K, Dogan I, Aleman A, Kogler L, Gruber O, Caspers J, Mathys C, Patil KR. Functional parcellation of human and macaque striatum reveals human-specific connectivity in the dorsal caudate. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118006. [PMID: 33819611 PMCID: PMC8214073 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 02/10/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
A wide homology between human and macaque striatum is often assumed as in both the striatum is involved in cognition, emotion and executive functions. However, differences in functional and structural organization between human and macaque striatum may reveal evolutionary divergence and shed light on human vulnerability to neuropsychiatric diseases. For instance, dopaminergic dysfunction of the human striatum is considered to be a pathophysiological underpinning of different disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Previous investigations have found a wide similarity in structural connectivity of the striatum between human and macaque, leaving the cross-species comparison of its functional organization unknown. In this study, resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) derived striatal parcels were compared based on their homologous cortico-striatal connectivity. The goal here was to identify striatal parcels whose connectivity is human-specific compared to macaque parcels. Functional parcellation revealed that the human striatum was split into dorsal, dorsomedial, and rostral caudate and ventral, central, and caudal putamen, while the macaque striatum was divided into dorsal, and rostral caudate and rostral, and caudal putamen. Cross-species comparison indicated dissimilar cortico-striatal RSFC of the topographically similar dorsal caudate. We probed clinical relevance of the striatal clusters by examining differences in their cortico-striatal RSFC and gray matter (GM) volume between patients (with PD and SCZ) and healthy controls. We found abnormal RSFC not only between dorsal caudate, but also between rostral caudate, ventral, central and caudal putamen and widespread cortical regions for both PD and SCZ patients. Also, we observed significant structural atrophy in rostral caudate, ventral and central putamen for both PD and SCZ while atrophy in the dorsal caudate was specific to PD. Taken together, our cross-species comparative results revealed shared and human-specific RSFC of different striatal clusters reinforcing the complex organization and function of the striatum. In addition, we provided a testable hypothesis that abnormalities in a region with human-specific connectivity, i.e., dorsal caudate, might be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojin Liu
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Svenja Caspers
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute for Anatomy I, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Jianxiao Wu
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Sarah Genon
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Felix Hoffstaedter
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Rogier B Mars
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Iris E Sommer
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Claudia R Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Ji Chen
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Renaud Jardri
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Lille, CNRS UMR9193, SCALab & CHU Lille, Fontan Hospital, CURE platform, Lille, France
| | - Kathrin Reetz
- JARA-BRAIN Institute Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Imis Dogan
- JARA-BRAIN Institute Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - André Aleman
- Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Lydia Kogler
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Germany
| | - Oliver Gruber
- Section for Experimental Psychopathology and Neuroimaging, Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Germany
| | - Julian Caspers
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Christian Mathys
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Research Center Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany; Institute of Radiology and Neuroradiology, Evangelisches Krankenhaus, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Kaustubh R Patil
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.
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25
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Kayser B, De Block A. Would Relaxation of the Anti-doping Rule Lead to Red Queen Effects? SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2020.1770846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bengt Kayser
- Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Lausanne, Synathlon, Uni-Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Accuracy-Risk Trade-Off Due to Social Learning in Crowd-Sourced Financial Predictions. ENTROPY 2021; 23:e23070801. [PMID: 34202445 PMCID: PMC8307866 DOI: 10.3390/e23070801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
A critical question relevant to the increasing importance of crowd-sourced-based finance is how to optimize collective information processing and decision-making. Here, we investigate an often under-studied aspect of the performance of online traders: beyond focusing on just accuracy, what gives rise to the trade-off between risk and accuracy at the collective level? Answers to this question will lead to designing and deploying more effective crowd-sourced financial platforms and to minimizing issues stemming from risk such as implied volatility. To investigate this trade-off, we conducted a large online Wisdom of the Crowd study where 2037 participants predicted the prices of real financial assets (S&P 500, WTI Oil and Gold prices). Using the data collected, we modeled the belief update process of participants using models inspired by Bayesian models of cognition. We show that subsets of predictions chosen based on their belief update strategies lie on a Pareto frontier between accuracy and risk, mediated by social learning. We also observe that social learning led to superior accuracy during one of our rounds that occurred during the high market uncertainty of the Brexit vote.
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Kaneko A, Asaoka Y, Lee YA, Goto Y. Cognitive and Affective Processes Associated with Social Biases. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2021; 24:645-655. [PMID: 33929492 PMCID: PMC8378077 DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyab022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2020] [Revised: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Our social activities are quite often erroneous and irrational, based on biased judgements and decision-making, known as social biases. However, the cognitive and affective processes that produce such biases remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated associations between social schemas, such as social judgment and conformity, entailing social biases and psychological measurements relevant to cognitive and affective functions. METHOD This study recruited 42 healthy adult subjects. A psychological test and a questionnaire were administered to assess biased social judgements by superficial attributes and social conformity by adherence to social norms, respectively, along with additional questionnaires and psychological tests for cognitive and affective measurements, including negative affects, autistic traits, and Theory of Mind (ToM). Associations of social judgment and conformity with cognitive and affective functions were examined using a multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling. RESULTS Anxiety and the cognitive realm of ToM were mutually associated with both social judgments and conformity, although social judgements and conformity were still independent processes. Social judgements were also associated with autistic traits and the affective realm of ToM, whereas social conformity was associated with negative affects other than anxiety and an intuitive decision-making style. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that ToM and negative affects may play important roles in social judgements and conformity, and the social biases connoted in these social schemas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asuka Kaneko
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan
| | - Yui Asaoka
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan
| | - Young-A Lee
- Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan,South Korea
| | - Yukiori Goto
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan,Correspondence: Yukiori Goto, PhD, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, 41–2 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi 484–8506, Japan ()
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Schnell AK, Boeckle M, Rivera M, Clayton NS, Hanlon RT. Cuttlefish exert self-control in a delay of gratification task. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20203161. [PMID: 33653135 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to exert self-control varies within and across taxa. Some species can exert self-control for several seconds whereas others, such as large-brained vertebrates, can tolerate delays of up to several minutes. Advanced self-control has been linked to better performance in cognitive tasks and has been hypothesized to evolve in response to specific socio-ecological pressures. These pressures are difficult to uncouple because previously studied species face similar socio-ecological challenges. Here, we investigate self-control and learning performance in cuttlefish, an invertebrate that is thought to have evolved under partially different pressures to previously studied vertebrates. To test self-control, cuttlefish were presented with a delay maintenance task, which measures an individual's ability to forgo immediate gratification and sustain a delay for a better but delayed reward. Cuttlefish maintained delay durations for up to 50-130 s. To test learning performance, we used a reversal-learning task, whereby cuttlefish were required to learn to associate the reward with one of two stimuli and then subsequently learn to associate the reward with the alternative stimulus. Cuttlefish that delayed gratification for longer had better learning performance. Our results demonstrate that cuttlefish can tolerate delays to obtain food of higher quality comparable to that of some large-brained vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Markus Boeckle
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Karl Landsteiner University of Health Science, Krems, Austria
| | - Micaela Rivera
- Department of Psychology, Ripon College, Ripon, WI 54971, USA
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Roger T Hanlon
- Eugene Bell Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
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29
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Haux LM, Engelmann JM, Herrmann E, Hertwig R. How chimpanzees decide in the face of social and nonsocial uncertainty. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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30
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Romain A, Broihanne MH, De Marco A, Ngoubangoye B, Call J, Rebout N, Dufour V. Non-human primates use combined rules when deciding under ambiguity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20190672. [PMID: 33423632 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Decision outcomes in unpredictable environments may not have exact known probabilities. Yet the predictability level of outcomes matters in decisions, and animals, including humans, generally avoid ambiguous options. Managing ambiguity may be more challenging and requires stronger cognitive skills than decision-making under risk, where decisions involve known probabilities. Here we compare decision-making in capuchins, macaques, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos in risky and ambiguous contexts. Subjects were shown lotteries (a tray of potential rewards, some large, some small) and could gamble a medium-sized food item to obtain one of the displayed rewards. The odds of winning and losing varied and were accessible in the risky context (all rewards were visible) or partially available in the ambiguous context (some rewards were covered). In the latter case, the level of information varied from fully ambiguous (individuals could not guess what was under the covers) to predictable (individuals could guess). None of the species avoided gambling in ambiguous lotteries and gambling rates were high if at least two large rewards were visible. Capuchins and bonobos ignored the covered items and gorillas and macaques took the presence of potential rewards into account, but only chimpanzees and orangutans could consistently build correct expectations about the size of the covered rewards. Chimpanzees and orangutans combined decision rules according to the number of large visible rewards and the level of predictability, a process resembling conditional probabilities assessment in humans. Despite a low sample size, this is the first evidence in non-human primates that a combination of several rules can underlie choices made in an unpredictable environment. Our finding that non-human primates can deal with the uncertainty of an outcome when exchanging one food item for another is a key element to the understanding of the evolutionary origins of economic behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Romain
- Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - M-H Broihanne
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie, EM Strasbourg Business School, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - A De Marco
- Fondazione Ethoikos, Radicondoli, Italy.,Parco Faunistico di Piano dell'Abatino, Poggio San Lorenzo, Italy
| | | | - J Call
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.,Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - N Rebout
- PRC, UMR 7247, Cognitive and social ethology team, INRAE-CNRS-IFCE, University of Tours, Tours, France
| | - V Dufour
- PRC, UMR 7247, Cognitive and social ethology team, INRAE-CNRS-IFCE, University of Tours, Tours, France
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31
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Keupp S, Grueneisen S, Ludvig EA, Warneken F, Melis AP. Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20190673. [PMID: 33423631 PMCID: PMC7815432 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
A key component of economic decisions is the integration of information about reward outcomes and probabilities in selecting between competing options. In many species, risky choice is influenced by the magnitude of available outcomes, probability of success and the possibility of extreme outcomes. Chimpanzees are generally regarded to be risk-seeking. In this study, we examined two aspects of chimpanzees' risk preferences: first, whether setting the value of the non-preferred outcome of a risky option to zero changes chimpanzees’ risk preferences, and second, whether individual risk preferences are stable across two different measures. Across two experiments, we found chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, n = 23) as a group to be risk-neutral to risk-avoidant with highly stable individual risk preferences. We discuss how the possibility of going empty-handed might reduce chimpanzees' risk-seeking relative to previous studies. This malleability in risk preferences as a function of experimental parameters and individual differences raises interesting questions about whether it is appropriate or helpful to categorize a species as a whole as risk-seeking or risk-avoidant. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie Keupp
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, University Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.,Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Sebastian Grueneisen
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA.,Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Elliot A Ludvig
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, University Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Felix Warneken
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA
| | - Alicia P Melis
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK
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32
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Brosnan SF. What behaviour in economic games tells us about the evolution of non-human species' economic decision-making behaviour. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20190670. [PMID: 33423638 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in using games derived from experimental economics to test decision-making behaviour across species. In most cases, researchers are using the games as a tool, for instance, to understand what factors influence decision-making, how decision-making differs across species or contexts, or to ask broader questions about species' propensities to cooperate or compete. These games have been quite successful in this regard. To what degree, however, do these games tap into species' economic decision-making? For the purpose of understanding the evolution of economic systems in humans, this is the key question. To study this, we can break economic decision-making down into smaller components, each of which is a potential step in the evolution of human economic behaviour. We can then use data from economic games, which are simplified, highly structured models of decision-making and therefore ideal for the comparative approach, to directly compare these components across species and contexts, as well as in relation to more naturalistic behaviours, to better understand the evolution of economic behaviour and the social and ecological contexts that influenced it. The comparative approach has successfully informed us about the evolution of other complex traits, such as language and morality, and should help us more deeply understand why and how human economic systems evolved. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah F Brosnan
- Departments of Psychology & Philosophy, Neuroscience Institute, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Language Research Center, Georgia State University, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA
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33
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Abstract
The field of comparative behavioural economics investigates decisions about the acquisition and exchange of goods and services. It does so in both humans and other species on the assumption that the cognition and emotions involved have a shared evolutionary background. This preface roughly defines the field and reviews a few selected early studies and concepts to offer a taste of what economic behaviour means in relation to species other than our own. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.
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34
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Kanazawa S. Economics and Epicycles. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2020; 16:517-532. [PMID: 33316203 DOI: 10.1177/1745691620953785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
I aver that standard economics as a model of human behavior is as incorrect in 2017 (after Thaler) as geocentrism was as a model of celestial behavior in 1617 (after Galileo). Behavioral economic studies that have exposed the paradoxes and anomalies in standard economics are akin to epicycles on geocentrism. Just as no amount of epicycles could salvage geocentrism as a model of celestial behavior because it was fundamentally incorrect, no amount of behavioral economic adjustments could salvage standard economics as a model of human behavior because it is fundamentally incorrect. Many of the cognitive biases exhibited by humans are shared by other species, so not only are human actors Humans (as opposed to Econs), but nonhuman animals as phylogenetically distant from humans as ants and locusts are also Humans. Evolutionary biology as a model of human behavior can explain many of the hitherto unexplained cognitive biases and provide a unifying model of human behavior currently lacking in behavioral economics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Kanazawa
- Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science
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35
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Capuchin and rhesus monkeys show sunk cost effects in a psychomotor task. Sci Rep 2020; 10:20396. [PMID: 33230238 PMCID: PMC7683735 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77301-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 11/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Human decision-making is often swayed by irrecoverable investments even though it should only be based on future—and not past—costs and benefits. Although this sunk cost effect is widely documented and can lead to devastating losses, the underlying psychological mechanisms are unclear. To tease apart possible explanations through a comparative approach, we assessed capuchin and rhesus monkeys’ susceptibility to sunk costs in a psychomotor task. Monkeys needed to track a moving target with a joystick-controlled cursor for variable durations. They could stop at any time, ending the trial without reward. To minimize the work required for a reward, monkeys should have always persisted for at least 1 s, but should have abandoned the trial if that did not yield a reward. Capuchin monkeys and especially rhesus macaques persisted to trial completion even when it was suboptimal, and were more likely to complete the trial the longer they had already tracked the target. These effects were less pronounced, although still present, when the change in expected tracking duration was signalled visually. These results show that sunk cost effects can arise in the absence of human-unique factors and may emerge, in part, because persisting can resolve uncertainty.
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36
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Luo Y, Pattanakul D. Infant expectations of instant or delayed gratification. Sci Rep 2020; 10:19081. [PMID: 33154545 PMCID: PMC7644689 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76136-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Choices between immediate gratification and long-term (but larger) gains are prevalent in human life, which is why the decision-making processes to delay gratification have been studied extensively throughout different developmental ages. Children's delay-of-gratification behaviors have been examined in the well-known "marshmallow test," in which 3- to 5-year-olds are given a marshmallow and told by an experimenter that they can eat it immediately or wait for an unspecified duration of time (which can be capped at 15 min) until the experimenter returns so that they can receive another marshmallow. Children's wait time has been viewed as a good indicator of their later development. Here we show that a group of 22-month-old infants (N = 32) already held expectations about others' choices in a violation-of-expectation looking-time task modeled after the marshmallow test. The infants expected an agent to defer gratification based on a speaker's promise of the second marshmallow available in the future, but to eat the currently attainable marshmallow when the speaker made no such promise. Our findings indicate an early-emerging understanding of others' choices of delayed or instant gratification and shed new light on the development of delay-of-gratification behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuyan Luo
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
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37
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Davis AC, Vaillancourt T, Arnocky S. The Dark Tetrad and Male Clients of Female Sex Work. Front Psychol 2020; 11:577171. [PMID: 33071917 PMCID: PMC7533589 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Many scholars have investigated the attitudes, beliefs, motives, and behavior of male clients of female sex workers. However, few have examined individual differences in major dimensions of personality expressed by men who purchase prostitution compared to those who do not. Although several evolutionary psychologists have studied prostitution and those involved in sex work, to our knowledge, none have explicitly considered the utility of an evolutionary personality perspective in trying to understand why particular men pay for sex. In the current mini-review, following other researchers, prostitution is described principally as a form of short-term mating sought primarily by men. We argue that the socially aversive traits embodying the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) may characterize certain male clients of female sex workers, particularly those consumers expressing the motives of desiring exciting and novel sex with women who are treated with contempt, perceiving prostitution in a business-like manner with little emotional involvement, and seeking to dominate and control sex workers who are viewed as vulnerable and subservient. The traits of the tetrad may also be more prevalent among men who purchase sex from female sex workers in outdoor (e.g., street prostitution) in comparison to indoor settings (e.g., escort agencies).
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam C Davis
- Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | | | - Steven Arnocky
- Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada
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38
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Hunt GR. New Caledonian crows' basic tool procurement is guided by heuristics, not matching or tracking probe site characteristics. Anim Cogn 2020; 24:177-191. [PMID: 32968948 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01427-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2020] [Revised: 08/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Contrasting findings made it unclear what cognitive processes New Caledonian crows use to procure suitable tools to solve tool tasks. Most previous studies suggested that their tool procurement is achieved by either trial and error or a simple heuristic. The latter provides a fast and cognitively efficient method for stable, routinized behaviour based on past experience with little or no deliberate decision-making. However, early papers by Chappell and Kacelnik reported that two New Caledonian crows procured tools after closely assessing the tool characteristics required for the task, thus using deliberate decision-making, or a 'customized strategy'. Here, I tested eight New Caledonian crows to determine their default behaviour in basic tool procurement tasks as a check on whether or not they use customized strategies. I used two rigorous experiments closely based on Chappell and Kacelnik's experiments. The crows did not use a customized strategy in either experiment, but their behaviour was clearly consistent with tool procurement predominantly guided by a familiarity heuristic. I discuss potential methodological issues that may have led to different conclusions in Chappell and Kacelnik's studies. Heuristic-guided, routinized behaviour in tool procurement has potential implications for understanding how standardization occurs in the early evolution of complex tool manufacture, both in New Caledonian crows and early humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gavin R Hunt
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. .,, 238 Meola Road, Point Chevalier, Auckland, 1022, New Zealand.
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39
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Price MH, Jones JH. Fitness-maximizers employ pessimistic probability weighting for decisions under risk. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e28. [PMID: 37588378 PMCID: PMC10427448 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.28] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
The standard theory of rationality posits that agents order preferences according to average utilities associated with different choices. Expected utility theory has repeatedly failed as a predictive theory, as reflected in a growing literature in behavioural economics. Evolutionary theorists have suggested that seemingly irrational behaviours in contemporary contexts may have once served important functions, but existing work linking fitness and choice has not adequately addressed the challenges of constructing an evolutionary theory of decision making. In particular, fitness itself is not a reasonable metric for decision making since its timescale exceeds the lifespan of the decision-maker. Consequently, organisms use proximate systems that work on appropriate timescales and are amenable to feedback and learning. We develop an evolutionary principal-agent model in which individuals utilize a set of proximal choice variables to account for the non-linear dependence of these variables on consumption. While this is insufficient to maximize fitness in the presence of environmental stochasticity, maximum fitness can be achieved by adopting pessimistic probability weightings compatible with the rank-dependent expected utility family of choice models. In particular, pessimistic probability weighting emerges naturally in an evolutionary framework because of extreme intolerance to zeros in multiplicative growth processes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - James Holland Jones
- Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London, UK
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40
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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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41
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Miller R, Gruber R, Frohnwieser A, Schiestl M, Jelbert SA, Gray RD, Boeckle M, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0219874. [PMID: 32160191 PMCID: PMC7065838 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2019] [Accepted: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to make profitable decisions in natural foraging contexts may be influenced by an additional requirement of tool-use, due to increased levels of relational complexity and additional work-effort imposed by tool-use, compared with simply choosing between an immediate and delayed food item. We examined the flexibility for making the most profitable decisions in a multi-dimensional tool-use task, involving different apparatuses, tools and rewards of varying quality, in 3-5-year-old children, adult humans and tool-making New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). We also compared our results to previous studies on habitually tool-making orangutans (Pongo abelii) and non-tool-making Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana). Adult humans, cockatoos and crows, but not children and orangutans, did not select a tool when it was not necessary, which was the more profitable choice in this situation. Adult humans, orangutans and cockatoos, but not crows and children, were able to refrain from selecting non-functional tools. By contrast, the birds, but not the primates tested, struggled to attend to multiple variables-where two apparatuses, two tools and two reward qualities were presented simultaneously-without extended experience. These findings indicate: (1) in a similar manner to humans and orangutans, New Caledonian crows and Goffin's cockatoos can flexibly make profitable decisions in some decision-making tool-use tasks, though the birds may struggle when tasks become more complex; (2) children and orangutans may have a bias to use tools in situations where adults and other tool-making species do not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (RM); (AF)
| | - Romana Gruber
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland Central, New Zealand
| | - Anna Frohnwieser
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (RM); (AF)
| | - Martina Schiestl
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland Central, New Zealand
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, Jena, Germany
| | - Sarah A. Jelbert
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, United Kingdom
| | - Russell D. Gray
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland Central, New Zealand
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, Jena, Germany
| | - Markus Boeckle
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
| | - Alex H. Taylor
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland Central, New Zealand
| | - Nicola S. Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
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42
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deShazo RD. How American Medicine Got to This Place. Am J Med Sci 2020; 359:63-66. [DOI: 10.1016/j.amjms.2019.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
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43
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Gains v. losses, or context dependence generated by confusion? Anim Cogn 2020; 23:361-366. [PMID: 31965401 PMCID: PMC7018787 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01339-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Tversky and Kahneman introduced the term framing for the finding that people give different answers to the same question depending on the way it is posed. One form of framing involves presenting the same outcome as either a gain or a loss. An experiment on starlings by Marsh and Kacelnik suggests that this form of framing occurs in non-humans. We argue that the experimental result demonstrates framing in the general sense of context dependence but does not provide compelling evidence of framing in terms of gains and losses. A version of scalar utility theory which is extended to include the possibility of memory errors accounts for the data and suggests future lines of research.
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44
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Miller R, Boeckle M, Jelbert SA, Frohnwieser A, Wascher CAF, Clayton NS. Self-control in crows, parrots and nonhuman primates. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2019; 10:e1504. [PMID: 31108570 PMCID: PMC6852083 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2019] [Revised: 04/16/2019] [Accepted: 04/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Self-control is critical for both humans and nonhuman animals because it underlies complex cognitive abilities, such as decision-making and future planning, enabling goal-directed behavior. For instance, it is positively associated with social competence and life success measures in humans. We present the first review of delay of gratification as a measure of self-control in nonhuman primates, corvids (crow family) and psittacines (parrot order): disparate groups that show comparable advanced cognitive abilities and similar socio-ecological factors. We compare delay of gratification performance and identify key issues and outstanding areas for future research, including finding the best measures and drivers of delayed gratification. Our review therefore contributes to our understanding of both delayed gratification as a measure of self-control and of complex cognition in animals. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Psychology > Comparative Psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael Miller
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Markus Boeckle
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Department of Cognitive BiologyUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
- Department of PsychotherapyBertha von Suttner Private UniversityAustria
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45
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Eisenreich BR, Hayden BY, Zimmermann J. Macaques are risk-averse in a freely moving foraging task. Sci Rep 2019; 9:15091. [PMID: 31636348 PMCID: PMC6803699 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51442-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 09/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) appear to be robustly risk-seeking in computerized gambling tasks typically used for electrophysiology. This behavior distinguishes them from many other animals, which are risk-averse, albeit measured in more naturalistic contexts. We wondered whether macaques' risk preferences reflect their evolutionary history or derive from the less naturalistic elements of task design associated with the demands of physiological recording. We assessed macaques' risk attitudes in a task that is somewhat more naturalistic than many that have previously been used: subjects foraged at four feeding stations in a large enclosure. Patches (i.e., stations), provided either stochastically or non-stochastically depleting rewards. Subjects' patch residence times were longer at safe than at risky stations, indicating a preference for safe options. This preference was not attributable to a win-stay-lose-shift heuristic and reversed as the environmental richness increased. These findings highlight the lability of risk attitudes in macaques and support the hypothesis that the ecological validity of a task can influence the expression of risk preference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin R Eisenreich
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, and Center for Neuroengineering University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
| | - Benjamin Y Hayden
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, and Center for Neuroengineering University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Jan Zimmermann
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, and Center for Neuroengineering University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
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Miller R, Frohnwieser A, Schiestl M, McCoy DE, Gray RD, Taylor AH, Clayton NS. Delayed gratification in New Caledonian crows and young children: influence of reward type and visibility. Anim Cogn 2019; 23:71-85. [PMID: 31630344 PMCID: PMC6981108 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01317-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Revised: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Self-control underlies cognitive abilities such as decision making and future planning. Delay of gratification is a measure of self-control and involves obtaining a more valuable outcome in the future by tolerating a delay or investing a greater effort in the present. Contextual issues, such as reward visibility and type, may influence delayed gratification performance, although there has been limited comparative investigation between humans and other animals, particularly non-primate species. Here, we adapted an automated 'rotating tray' paradigm used previously with capuchin monkeys to test for delay of gratification ability that requires little pre-test training, where the subject must forgo an immediate, less preferred reward for a delayed, more preferred one. We tested New Caledonian crows and 3-5-year-old human children. We manipulated reward types to differ in quality or quantity (Experiments 1 and 2) as well as visibility (Experiment 2). In Experiments 1 and 2, both species performed better when the rewards varied in quality as opposed to quantity, though performed above chance in both conditions. In Experiment 1, both crows and children were able to delay gratification when both rewards were visible. In Experiment 2, 5-year-old children outperformed 3- and 4-year olds, though overall children still performed well, while the crows struggled when reward visibility was manipulated, a result which may relate to difficulties in tracking the experimenters' hands during baiting. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of contextual issues on self-control when making species comparisons and investigating the mechanisms of self-control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Anna Frohnwieser
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Martina Schiestl
- School of Psychology, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand.,Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, Jena, Germany
| | - Dakota E McCoy
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
| | - Russell D Gray
- School of Psychology, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand.,Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, Jena, Germany
| | - Alex H Taylor
- School of Psychology, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Azzachra YR, Hidayatno A, Komarudin K. Policy Analysis of Individual Financial Planning Affected by Personal Bias Factors in Indonesia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEM DYNAMICS APPLICATIONS 2019. [DOI: 10.4018/ijsda.2019100103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Even in making individual financial decisions, humans will naturally still be affected by personal biases which leads to less than optimal, illogical, and irrational decisions. It will be an important issue due to individual financial decisions which accumulate as a whole country's economic performance. This research introduces the idea to combine personal biases stated in behavioral economic theory with individual financial decision models using a system dynamics approach. The research uses vignette a fractional factorial studies method to calculate the score of personal bias factors. The main findings of the research show that there is a positive feedback loop on individual financial planning which is influenced by personal biases. The research concludes that personal bias factors such as the hedonic editing effect, future spending, category budgeting, endowment effect, and house-money effects are important factors in individual financial planning. Thus, paying attention to these personal biases then may help policy maker to control saving, spending, and investment rates in Indonesia.
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Abstract
Modern decision neuroscience offers a powerful and broad account of human behaviour using computational techniques that link psychological and neuroscientific approaches to the ways that individuals can generate near-optimal choices in complex controlled environments. However, until recently, relatively little attention has been paid to the extent to which the structure of experimental environments relates to natural scenarios, and the survival problems that individuals have evolved to solve. This situation not only risks leaving decision-theoretic accounts ungrounded but also makes various aspects of the solutions, such as hard-wired or Pavlovian policies, difficult to interpret in the natural world. Here, we suggest importing concepts, paradigms and approaches from the fields of ethology and behavioural ecology, which concentrate on the contextual and functional correlates of decisions made about foraging and escape and address these lacunae.
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De Petrillo F, Rosati AG. Ecological rationality: Convergent decision-making in apes and capuchins. Behav Processes 2019; 164:201-213. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2018] [Revised: 05/02/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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Abstract
Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events, a cognitive skill that underpins logical and mathematical reasoning. Recent research shows that some of these abilities for statistical inferences can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins. An important question is therefore whether animals share the full complement of intuitive reasoning abilities demonstrated by humans, as well as what evolutionary contexts promote the emergence of such skills. Here, we examined whether free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) can use probability information to infer the most likely outcome of a random lottery, in the first test of whether primates can make such inferences in the absence of direct prior experience. We developed a novel expectancy-violation looking time task, adapted from prior studies of infants, in order to assess the monkeys' expectations. In Study 1, we confirmed that monkeys (n = 20) looked similarly at different sampled items if they had no prior knowledge about the population they were drawn from. In Study 2, monkeys (n = 80) saw a dynamic 'lottery' machine containing a mix of two types of fruit outcomes, and then saw either the more common fruit (expected trial) or the relatively rare fruit (unexpected trial) fall from the machine. We found that monkeys looked longer when they witnessed the unexpected outcome. In Study 3, we confirmed that this effect depended on the causal relationship between the sample and the population, not visual mismatch: monkeys (n = 80) looked equally at both outcomes if the experimenter pulled the sampled item from her pocket. These results reveal that rhesus monkeys spontaneously use information about probability to reason about likely outcomes, and show how comparative studies of nonhumans can disentangle the evolutionary history of logical reasoning capacities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca De Petrillo
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.,Institute for Advance Study in Toulouse, Manufacture des Tabacs, 21, Allée de Brienne, 31015 Toulouse, France
| | - Alexandra G Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.,Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
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