Open AccessPrinciples of Economic Rationality in Mice
Author(s) -
Marion Rivalan,
York Winter,
Vladislav Nachev
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/s41598-017-17747-7
Subject(s) - rationality , equivalence (formal languages) , dimension (graph theory) , transitive relation , cognition , ecological rationality , independence (probability theory) , psychology , cognitive psychology , positive economics , social psychology , economics , epistemology , mathematics , statistics , neuroscience , philosophy , discrete mathematics , combinatorics , pure mathematics
Humans and non-human animals frequently violate principles of economic rationality, such as transitivity, independence of irrelevant alternatives, and regularity. The conditions that lead to these violations are not completely understood. Here we report a study on mice tested in automated home-cage setups using rewards of drinking water. Rewards differed in one of two dimensions, volume or probability. Our results suggest that mouse choice conforms to the principles of economic rationality for options that differ along a single reward dimension. A psychometric analysis of mouse choices further revealed that mice responded more strongly to differences in probability than to differences in volume, despite equivalence in return rates. This study also demonstrates the synergistic effect between the principles of economic rationality and psychophysics in making quantitative predictions about choices of healthy laboratory mice. This opens up new possibilities for the analyses of multi-dimensional choice and the use of mice with cognitive impairments that may violate economic rationality.