Learning, memory, and foraging behavior.

Kamil, Alan C.; Clements, Kevin C.

doi:10.1037/11525-001

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…History and memory effects in patch foraging. Animals performing trained [81][82][83] and naturalistic behavior [84][85][86] make history-dependent decisions based on the stimuli they have experienced and the responses they have made. History-dependence is likely mediated by both short and long term memory processes.…”

Section: Table Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Kilpatrick

Davidson

Hady

2020

Preprint

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Foraging is a fundamental behavior as animals' search for food is crucial for their survival. Patch leaving is a canonical foraging behavior, but classic theoretical conceptions of patch leaving decisions lack some key naturalistic details. Optimal foraging theory provides general rules for when an animal should leave a patch, but does not provide mechanistic insights about how those rules change with the structure of the environment. Such a mechanistic framework would aid in designing quantitative experiments to unravel behavioral and neural underpinnings of foraging. To address these shortcomings, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions. Using a Bayesian approach, we treat patch leaving behavior as a statistical inference problem. We derive the animals' optimal decision strategies in both non-depleting and depleting environments. A majority of these cases can be analyzed explicitly using methods from stochastic processes. Our behavioral predictions are expressed in terms of the optimal patch residence time and the decision rule by which an animal departs a patch. We also extend our theory to a hierarchical model in which the forager learns the environmental food resource distribution. The quantitative framework we develop will therefore help experimenters move from analyzing trial based behavior to continuous behavior without the loss of quantitative rigor. Our theoretical framework both extends optimal foraging theory and motivates a variety of behavioral and neuroscientific experiments investigating patch foraging behavior. CONTENTS

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Section: Table Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Kilpatrick

Davidson

Hady

2020

Preprint

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“…The order in which the transitions were presented was identical for each bird. Different transition points were used to mimic the unpredictability of natural foraging situations; in nature animals often do not display steady-state behavior because natural environments are often variable (Dreyfus, 1991;Kamil & Clements, 1990). Each session ended after a bird had received 80 reinforcers.…”

Section: Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment and Choice: An Operant Simulation of Foraging in Patches

Roche

Stubbs

Glanz

1996

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Pigeons were presented with an operant simulation of two prey patches using concurrent randomratio schedules of reinforcement. An unstable patch offered a higher initial reinforcement probability, which then declined unpredictably to a zero reinforcement probability in each session. A stable patch offered a low but unvarying reinforcement probability. When the reinforcement probability declined to zero in a single step, the birds displayed shorter giving-up times in the unstable patch when the ratio between the initial reinforcement probabilities in the unstable and stable patches was greater and when the combined magnitude of the reinforcement probabilities in the two patches was greater. When the unstable patch declined in two steps, the birds behaved as if their giving-up times were influenced heavily by events encountered during the most recent step of the double-step change. This effect was observed, however, only when the reinforcement probability in that step was .04, not when it was .06. All of these data agree with the predictions of a capture-probability model based on a comparison of the estimated probability of receiving a reinforcer in the current patch with that in alternative patches.

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“…Textbook authors (e.g. ALCOCK 1975;DEWSBURY 1978;KLOPFER & HAILMAN 1967) and authors of other influential works (e.g., LEHNER 1979) have relied upon TIN-BERGEN'S formulation. However, in the process of this popularization, the "problems" have been transformed in ways that appear in some ways inconsistent with TINBERGEN'S aims and that may be detrimental to the development of the balanced science of animal behavior that I envisage.…”

Section: Tinbergen's Four Problems and Their Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Role and Changing Views of HAILMAN Jack HAILMAN was important in popularizing the use of the four problems (e.g., HAILMAN 1964HAILMAN , 1967HAILMAN , 1977HAILMAN , 1982KLOPFER & HAILMAN 1967, 1972a. Indeed, HAILMAN (1967) believed that he had developed the four problems independently of TINBERGEN.…”

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confidence: 99%

Essay on Contemporary Issues in Ethology: On the Problems Studied in Ethology, Comparative Psychology, and Animal Behavior

Dewsbury

1992

Ethology

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I review Tinbergen's “four problems of biology,” their antecedents, and their subsequent development in the hands of other writers. As they have been developed from writer to writer the “problems” have been transformed and altered in subtle ways, some of which appear counterproductive. I suggest that the divisions of the problems in terms of “proximate‐ultimate” and “how‐why” have had unfortunate consequences and I suggest a modest revision so that problems are considered in relation to the genesis, control, and consequences of behavior.

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Learning, memory, and foraging behavior.

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Assessment and Choice: An Operant Simulation of Foraging in Patches

Essay on Contemporary Issues in Ethology: On the Problems Studied in Ethology, Comparative Psychology, and Animal Behavior

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