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A TEMPORAL LIMIT ON THE EFFECT OF FUTURE FOOD ON CURRENT PERFORMANCE IN AN ANALOGUE OF FORAGING AND WELFARE
Author(s) -
Timberlake William
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1984.41-117
Subject(s) - session (web analytics) , foraging , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , work (physics) , time allocation , schedule , time limit , affect (linguistics) , computer science , psychology , economics , communication , biology , ecology , engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , management , world wide web , operating system
Rats obtained access to food twice each 24‐hour period. The first session was a work session in which food was available on a progressive‐ratio schedule. During the second session, which occurred between 1 and 23 hours after the work session, food was freely available up to a fixed total intake each 24 hours. The situation resembled elements of several real world circumstances, including the choice between continuing to forage in a rapidly depleting patch and waiting for a better patch, and between working now and receiving a guaranteed income later. The purpose of the experiment was to explore the time period over which future access to reward could affect current responding. Contrary to what might be expected from recent theorizing, anticipation of future food delayed by an hour or more after the start of the work session had no effect on current performance. Food intake was high and constant during work sessions except for a prefeeding effect that occurred when the free session closely preceded the next day's work session. Also, an increase in the difficulty of the work schedule increased the amount of work and the maximum price paid for food as if the work session were the only time food was available. The results indicate the importance of considering temporal limits in theories that require animals to integrate input over time to determine the allocation of resources among alternatives.