Pietras CJ  Locey ML  Hackenberg TD 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》2003,80(1):59-75

Risk-sensitive foraging models predict that choice between fixed and variable food delays should be influenced by an organism's energy budget. To investigate whether the predictions of these models could be extended to choice in humans, risk sensitivity in 4 adults was investigated under laboratory conditions designed to model positive and negative energy budgets. Subjects chose between fixed and variable trial durations with the same mean value. An energy requirement was modeled by requiring that five trials be completed within a limited time period for points delivered at the end of the period (block of trials) to be exchanged later for money. Manipulating the duration of this time period generated positive and negative earnings budgets (or, alternatively, \"time budgets\"). Choices were consistent with the predictions of energy-budget models: The fixed-delay option was strongly preferred under positive earnings-budget conditions and the variable-delay option was strongly preferred under negative earnings-budget conditions. Within-block (or trial-by-trial) choices were also frequently consistent with the predictions of a dynamic optimization model, indicating that choice was simultaneously sensitive to the temporal requirements, delays associated with fixed and variable choices on the upcoming trial, cumulative delays within the block of trials, and trial position within a block.  相似文献   

  总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

H Rachlin 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》2003,79(3):409-412

Standard economic theory says that the rational approach to a decision is to weigh all alternatives on all relevant dimensions and then to select the one with the highest weight. Such a procedure would maximize subjective expected utility. But, because of constraints on time and available information, people and other animals often bypass this process by using “fast and frugal” heuristics to make decisions. Rationality is thus said to be “bounded” by time and information constraints. The articles in this book describe and organize common heuristics. They show that use of such heuristics is generally the best approach to many real world problems and therefore not irrational. Heuristics evolved, they say, not as deviations from rationality but as aids to rationality in cases where the standard model would have proved to be too slow or inefficient. Although the approach of almost all of the authors of these papers is that of cognitive psychology—a focus on internal cognitive mechanisms—their findings and even their theories may be interpreted in terms of reinforcement and punishment acting on behavioral patterns.  相似文献   

    

Romaniuk C  Miltenberger R  Conyers C  Jenner N  Jurgens M  Ringenberg C 《Journal of applied behavior analysis》2002,35(4):349-362

This study assessed whether the function of an individual's problem behavior was related to the effectiveness of an intervention involving choice among tasks. Analogue functional analyses were conducted with 7 students with various diagnoses to determine whether problem behaviors were maintained by escape or attention. Following identification of the function of each student's problem behavior, reversal designs were used to assess the effectiveness of an intervention that allowed the students to choose their own instructional tasks. Results showed that students who displayed escape-maintained problem behavior showed substantial reductions in such behavior when they were provided with opportunities to choose among tasks. On the other hand, students who displayed attention-maintained problem behavior did not show any effects as a result of the choice intervention. These findings are discussed in terms of the effective use of behavior management programs involving choice and the reduction of problem behavior.  相似文献   

  总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Johnson MW  Bickel WK 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》2002,77(2):129-146

A within-subject design, using human participants, compared delay discounting functions for real and hypothetical money rewards. Both real and hypothetical rewards were studied across a range that included $10 to $250. For 5 of the 6 participants, no systematic difference in discount rate was observed in response to real and hypothetical choices, suggesting that hypothetical rewards may often serve as a valid proxy for real rewards in delay discounting research. By measuring discounting at an unprecedented range of real rewards, this study has also systematically replicated the robust finding in human delay discounting research that discount rates decrease with increasing magnitude of reward. A hyperbolic decay model described the data better than an exponential model.  相似文献   

    

Yoella Bereby‐Meyer  Joachim Meyer  Oded M. Flascher 《决策行为杂志》2002,15(4):313-327

The guessing of answers in multiple choice tests adds random error to the variance of the test scores, lowering their reliability. Formula scoring rules that penalize for wrong guesses are frequently used to solve this problem. This paper uses prospect theory to analyze scoring rules from a decision‐making perspective and focuses on the effects of framing on the tendency to guess. In three experiments participants were presented with hypothetical test situations and were asked to indicate the degree of certainty that they thought was required for them to answer a question. In accordance with the framing hypothesis, participants tended to guess more when they anticipated a low grade and therefore considered themselves to be in the loss domain, or when the scoring rule caused the situation to be framed as entailing potential losses. The last experiment replicated these results with a task that resembles an actual test. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

  总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Richards JB  Zhang L  Mitchell SH  de Wit H 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》1999,71(2):121-143

Little is known about the acute effects of drugs of abuse on impulsivity and self-control. In this study, impulsivity was assessed in humans using a computer task that measured delay and probability discounting. Discounting describes how much the value of a reward (or punisher) is decreased when its occurrence is either delayed or uncertain. Twenty-four healthy adult volunteers ingested a moderate dose of ethanol (0.5 or 0.8 g/kg ethanol: n = 12 at each dose) or placebo before completing the discounting task. In the task the participants were given a series of choices between a small, immediate, certain amount of money and $10 that was either delayed (0, 2, 30, 180, or 365 days) or probabilistic (i.e., certainty of receipt was 1.0, .9, .75, .5, or .25). The point at which each individual was indifferent between the smaller immediate or certain reward and the $10 delayed or probabilistic reward was identified using an adjusting-amount procedure. The results indicated that (a) delay and probability discounting were well described by a hyperbolic function; (b) delay and probability discounting were positively correlated within subjects; (c) delay and probability discounting were moderately correlated with personality measures of impulsivity; and (d) alcohol had no effect on discounting.  相似文献   

    

Adam S. Goodie  Edmund Fantino 《决策行为杂志》1999,12(4):307-335

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McDevitt M  Spetch M  Dunn R 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》1997,68(3):317-327

In a baseline condition, pigeons chose between an alternative that always provided food following a 30-s delay (100% reinforcement) and an alternative that provided food half of the time and blackout half of the time following 30-s delays (50% reinforcement). The different outcomes were signaled by different-colored keylights. On average, each alternative was chosen approximately equally often, replicating the finding of suboptimal choice in probabilistic reinforcement procedures. The efficacy of the delay stimuli (keylights) as conditioned reinforcers was assessed in other conditions by interposing a 5-s gap (keylights darkened) between the choice response and one or more of the delay stimuli. The strength of conditioned reinforcement was measured by the decrease in choice of an alternative when the alternative contained a gap. Preference for the 50% alternative decreased in conditions in which the gap preceded either all delay stimuli, both delay stimuli for the 50% alternative, or the food stimulus for the 50% alternative, but preference was not consistently affected in conditions in which the gap preceded only the 100% delay stimulus or the blackout stimulus for the 50% alternative. These results support the notion that conditioned reinforcement underlies the finding of suboptimal preference in probabilistic reinforcement procedures, and that the signal for food on the 50% reinforcement alternative functions as a stronger conditioned reinforcer than the signal for food on the 100% reinforcement alternative. In addition, the results fail to provide evidence that the signal for blackout functions as a conditioned punisher.  相似文献   

    

Davison M  Jones M 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》1997,67(2):161-179

Five pigeons were trained in a concurrent foraging procedure in which reinforcers were occasionally available after fixed times in two discriminated patches. In Part 1 of the experiment, the fixed times summed to 10 s, and were individually varied between 1 and 9 s over five conditions, with the probability of a reinforcer being delivered at the fixed times always .5. In Part 2, both fixed times were 5 s, and the probabilities of food delivery were varied over conditions, always summing to 1.0. In Parts 3 and 4, one fixed time was kept constant (Part 3, 3 s; Part 4, 7 s) while the other fixed time was varied from 1 s to 15 s. Median residence times in both patches increased with increases in the food-arrival times in either patch, but increased considerably more strongly in the patch in which the arrival time was increased. However, when arrival times were very different in the two patches, residence time in the longer arrival-time patch often decreased. Patch residence also increased with increasing probability of reinforcement, but again tended to fall when one probability was much larger than the other. A detailed analysis of residence times showed that these comprised two distributions, one around a shorter mode that remained constant with changes in arrival times, and one around a longer mode that monotonically increased with increasing arrival time. The frequency of shorter residence times appeared to be controlled by the probability of, and arrival time of, reinforcers in the alternative patch. The frequency of longer residence times was controlled directly by the arrival time of reinforcers in a patch, but not by the probability of reinforcers in a patch. The environmental variables that control both staying in a patch and exiting from a patch need to be understood in the study both of timing processes and of foraging.  相似文献   

  总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

Silberberg A  Fujita K 《Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior》1996,66(1):143-147

Boysen and Berntson (1995) showed that apes could not learn to point to a small amount of candy in order to get a larger amount when pointing to the larger amount was reinforced by receipt of the alternate, smaller amount. They explained this result as an unlearned predisposition to reach for higher value foods that overrides the effects of reinforcement. This report tests their thesis. In the first condition, 3 monkeys chose between one raisin held in one hand by the experimenter and four raisins held in the other hand. If a monkey pointed at four raisins, it received one. If it pointed at one, it received four. Over ten 20-trial sessions, no monkey learned to point at the one-raisin alternative, a result similar to that of Boysen and Berntson. In the second condition, pointing at one raisin still produced four; however, pointing at four raisins now produced no reinforcement. In five 20-trial sessions, all monkeys learned to point at one raisin in order to get four. This finding demonstrates that at least in monkeys there is no predisposition to reach for higher value foods that cannot be readily overridden by reinforcement contingencies, and casts doubt on Boysen and Berntson's claim to have demonstrated such a process in apes.  相似文献