Choice behavior of pigeons (Columba livia), college students, and preschool children (Homo sapiens) in the Monty Hall dilemma.

Abstract

In the Monty Hall dilemma, an individual chooses between three options, only one of which will deliver a prize. After the initial choice, one of the non-chosen options is revealed as a losing option, and the individual can choose to stay with the original choice or switch to the other remaining option. Previous studies have found that most adults stay with their initial choice, although the chances of winning are 2/3 for switching and 1/3 for staying. Pigeons, college students, and preschool children were given many trials on this task to examine how their choices might change with experience. The college students began to switch on a majority of trials much sooner than the pigeons, contrary to the findings by Herbranson and Schroeder (2010) that pigeons perform better than people on this task. In all three groups, some individuals approximated the optimal strategy of switching on every trial, but most did not. Many of the preschoolers immediately showed a pattern of always switching or always staying and continued this pattern throughout the experiment. In a condition where the probability of winning was 90% after a switch, all college students and all but one pigeon learned to switch on nearly every trial. The results suggest that one main impediment to learning the optimal strategy in the Monty Hall task, even after repeated trials, is the difficulty in discriminating the different reinforcement probabilities for switching versus staying.

Further investigation of the Monty Hall Dilemma in pigeons and rats

“…Although pigeons in the Switch group in Experiment 2 did switch more often than pigeons in the Stay and Control groups, their preference for switching was not as strong as has been previously observed (Herbranson and Schroeder, 2010;Mazur and Kahlbaugh, 2012;Stagner et al, 2013b). Finding individual variability in the MHD task is not uncommon, although the reduced preference for switching by pigeons in Experiment 2 may be due to the difference in the procedure.…”

“…Although Stagner et al (2013a,b) found strong use of the switching strategy in pigeons, they did not replicate the exclusive usage of this strategy that Herbranson and Schroeder (2010) found; nor did Mazur and Kahlbaugh (2012). Much like Stagner et al (2013b), Mazur and Kahlbaugh (2012) found that pigeons switched about 60% of the time at Session 30.…”

“…Much like Stagner et al (2013b), Mazur and Kahlbaugh (2012) found that pigeons switched about 60% of the time at Session 30. Stagner et al (2013b) continued training and found that their pigeons switched about 80% of the time after 80 sessions of training.…”

“…However, rats' natural tendency to alternate may make the task more difficult and thus it may take them longer to acquire the optimal stay strategy (Montgomery, 1952a,b). It is possible that rats will learn to stay with their initially chosen lever but will not perform as well as pigeons have on this task because pigeons have a natural tendency to stay (Mazur and Kahlbaugh, 2012).…”

Differential Responding by Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and Humans (Homo sapiens) to Variable Outcomes in the Assurance Game

“…For example, pigeons distributed a higher proportion of their responses to the higher-paying alternative than did humans in procedurally equivalent tasks (Goodie & Fantino, 1995Hartl & Fantino, 1996). Some research teams have reported that nonhuman animals appear to respond in a way that better maximizes payoffs than humans to probabilistic game-like tasks such as the Monty Hall Dilemma (e.g., Herbranson & Schroeder, 2010), although this is not always the case (e.g., Klein, Evans, Schultz, & Beran, 2013;Mazur & Kahlbaugh, 2012).…”