Premium
HUMAN GROUP CHOICE: DISCRETE‐TRIAL AND FREE‐OPERANT TESTS OF THE IDEAL FREE DISTRIBUTION
Author(s) -
Madden Gregory J.,
Peden Blaine F.,
Yamaguchi Tetsuo
Publication year - 2002
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.2002.78-1
Subject(s) - group (periodic table) , operant conditioning , computer science , ideal (ethics) , psychology , artificial intelligence , social psychology , reinforcement , chemistry , organic chemistry , philosophy , epistemology
Ideal free distribution theory predicts that foragers will form groups proportional in number to the resources available in alternative resource sites or patches, a phenomenon termed habitat matching. Three experiments tested this prediction with college students in discrete‐trial simulations and a free‐operant simulation. Sensitivity to differences in programmed reinforcement rates was quantified by using the sensitivity parameter of the generalized matching law ( s ). The first experiment, replicating prior published experiments, produced a greater degree of undermatching for the initial choice ( s 5 0.59) compared to final choices ( s 5 0.86). The second experiment, which extended prior findings by allowing only one choice per trial, produced comparable undermatching ( s 5 0.82). The third experiment used free‐operant procedures more typical of laboratory studies of habitat matching with other species and produced the most undermatching ( s 5 0.71). The results of these experiments replicated previous results with human groups, supported predictions of the ideal free distribution, and suggested that undermatching represents a systematic deviation from the ideal free distribution. These results are consistent with a melioration account of individual behavior as the basis for group choice.