Overmatching under food uncertainty in foraging pigeons

Anselme, Patrick; Wittek, Neslihan; Oeksuez, Fatma; Güntürkün, Onur

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104728

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Food uncertainty per hole forced the pigeons to work harder (overmatching) than expected from reinforcement theory in order to exploit the U area maximally (i.e., as efficiently as the R area). A similar result had also been obtained with the holes covered in both the R and U areas, using the design of Experiment 1 (Anselme et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…This configuration let the pigeons deplete the R area while maintaining seeking behavior in the U area at a relatively constant, high rate. The time-per-visit and the pecks-per-visit ratios showed a clear-cut higher investment in the U area-as discussed further, similar findings were also found when all the areas were covered (Anselme et al, 2022). Experiment 2 introduced some variations in this design.…”

Section: Experiments 2: Methodssupporting

confidence: 67%

“…In a previous study with our foraging board (in which all the holes were covered) and noticeable differences in the situations tested, we found that more foraging time and effort per visit were observed in the uncertain area than expected based on reinforcement rates (Anselme et al, 2022). The pigeons had to choose between 30 cued covered holes consistently baited with one food item per hole (with 60 cued covered empty holes) on one side of the board and 30 cued covered holes randomly baited out of 90 holes on the other side.…”

Section: Actividad De Forrajeo Con Esfuerzo Para Comida Incierta En P...mentioning

confidence: 57%

“…In this second scenario, the certain area becomes more uncertain after a few pecks and quickly equivalent in terms of reward rate to the (initially) uncertain area. Differential behaviors in both areas would possibly be indicative of a motivational/cognitive bias induced by differential reward density when a session starts, as shown in Anselme et al (2022). Here, we introduced significant variations relative to this study to determine whether the behavioral effects (biases) are replicable.…”

Section: Actividad De Forrajeo Con Esfuerzo Para Comida Incierta En P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Effortful foraging activity for uncertain food in pigeons

Anselme,

Oeksuez,

Okur

et al. 2024

International Journal of Comparative Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When well-known food resources are running out, animals extinguish their foraging behavior in that food patch and increasingly work for reward-related information to decrease outcome uncertainty. In the absence of such information, a potentially successful strategy consists of spending more time and effort searching for profitable locations—a phenomenon known from extinction learning experiments conducted in conventional conditioning chambers. Here, we tested this hypothesis by means of a semi-natural “foraging board” allowing pigeons to move and look for food items inside perforated holes. The holes could be covered with a slit plastic tape, hiding the food items they contained while making them accessible to pigeons. Our goal was to determine how pigeons forage on hidden food items in an area associated with uncertainty (one in three holes baited, on average) when visible or hidden food items were available in an adjacent area associated with certainty (each hole baited). The number of food items was equivalent in both areas. We expected longer time spent and more pecks given in the uncertain vs. certain area with the food items visible in the certain area, as well as longer time spent and more pecks given per visit in the uncertain vs. certain area with the food items either visible or hidden in the certain area. Our results confirm these predictions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Experiments 2: Methodssupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Actividad De Forrajeo Con Esfuerzo Para Comida Incierta En P...mentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Actividad De Forrajeo Con Esfuerzo Para Comida Incierta En P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effortful foraging activity for uncertain food in pigeons

Anselme,

Oeksuez,

Okur

et al. 2024

International Journal of Comparative Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, it will naturally produce a quantitative change in behavior over successive observation intervals, such that the pigeon will end up spending most of its foraging time in the region with the largest amount of food. Accordingly, pigeons prefer to forage in patches with a higher food density, especially if the food items can be detectedvisually (Anselme et al, 2018; Anselme et al, in press). Even if all external factors were held constant, we could not be sure whether the observed change was actually caused by reinforcement, or by a simple local decision rule that mimics reinforcement but is in fact something completely different.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-Based Estimates for Operant Selection

Borgstede

Anselme

2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a new methodology to partition different sources of learning within a selectionist framework based on the Price equation – the Multilevel Model of Behavioral Selection (MLBS). The MLBS provides a theoretical and formal background to disentangle behavior changes due to selection effects ('reinforcement') from behavior changes due to non-selection effects (e.g., “effort” or “skill”). The model allows to quantify the causal effect of reinforcement even in the presence of opposing sources of behavior change and to test whether the reinforcement effect is statistically significant for a given subject. We demonstrate our method using training data from a reinforcement experiment with nine pigeons (Columba livia). The pigeons were trained to search for food in small holes on the ground of a special cage. In each session, the holes in only one half of the cage were filled with food (reinforced region), while the holes in the other half of the cage remained empty (nonreinforced region). Although the total time spent in the reinforced region between training sessions tends to decrease between training sessions, our method reveals positive behavioral selection (reinforcement effect) in most of the pigeons. However, this selection effect is masked by a strong non-selection component that consists in pigeons becoming more efficient foragers (skill effect) and in an increased peck frequency (effort effect). The partitioning of behavior change into selection and non-selection components allows to identify the causal effects of reinforcement even if they cannot be isolated experimentally. Our method is especially useful in the context of non-equilibrium behavior analysis (such as the change between training sessions), and in the context of behavior observations in naturalistic settings.

show abstract

Model‐based estimates for operant selection

Borgstede,

Anselme

2024

J Exper Analysis Behavior

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a new methodology to partition different sources of behavior change within a selectionist framework based on the Price equation—the multilevel model of behavioral selection. The multilevel model of behavioral selection provides a theoretical background to describe behavior change in terms of operant selection. Operant selection is formally captured by the covariance‐based law of effect and accounts for all changes in individual behavior that involve a covariance between behavior and predictors of evolutionary fitness (e.g., food). In this article, we show how the covariance‐based law of effect may be applied to different components of operant behavior (e.g., allocation, speed, and accuracy of responding), thereby providing quantitative estimates for various selection effects affecting behavior change using data from a published learning experiment with pigeons.

show abstract

Overmatching under food uncertainty in foraging pigeons

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Effortful foraging activity for uncertain food in pigeons

Effortful foraging activity for uncertain food in pigeons

Model-Based Estimates for Operant Selection

Model‐based estimates for operant selection

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About