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PubMed1990

Rearing in darkness changes visually-guided choice behavior in Drosophila.

To test whether visual experience can affect development of visual behavior in the fruitfly, Drosophila, we measured the visually-guided choice behavior of groups of flies reared in complete darkness, compared with controls reared in a normal light/dark cycle. We used a simple visual preference test, i.e. choice among four different visual targets each consisting of vertical black lines of a particular width on a white background, using a blind testing procedure so that the individual rearing histories were not known by the tester. Both groups of flies were strongly attracted to the vertical lines; however, generally the dark-reared flies were more attracted to the wider stimulus lines than were the control flies. Control experiments in which normally reared adults were kept for several days in darkness showed that the effects of dark-rearing were not simply due to being in darkness, but depended upon the timing of the deprivation. The results indicate that the development of visual behavior can be affected by visual experience in Drosophila and thus open the possibility of using Drosophila for genetic dissection of mechanisms of visual plasticity.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Global and local control of choice behavior by cyclically varying outcome probabilities.

Subjects asked to simulate decision makers in a competitive bidding situation chose repeatedly between two alternatives; reward probability varied according to a sine wave function of time for one alternative but was held constant over time for the other. Learning functions for choice probability exhibited the wavelike pattern predicted by a statistical learning model. However, on later transfer trials, when success probability was independent of subjects' choices, their choice behavior continued to follow a wavelike function rather than approaching the constant .5 level predicted by the learning model. A possible basis in memory for the transfer performance was revealed in subjects' sketches of the remembered pattern of variation in reward probabilities. It is concluded that choice performance is controlled by a mixture of local feedback, in a manner described by the learning model, and more global information encoded in an abstract memory representation, with the balance of the influence shifting toward the latter when local feedback becomes uninformative.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Effect of d-amphetamine, secobarbital, and marijuana on choice behavior: social versus nonsocial options.

The effects of oral d-amphetamine and secobarbital and smoked marijuana on human social conversation and preference for socializing were studied in three separate experiments. During experimental sessions, active drug or placebo was administered using an acute or divided dosing procedure. Subjects who received drug then engaged in a discrete-trial choice procedure in which they made a series of mutually exclusive choices between a social (talking with their nondrugged partner) and nonsocial (sitting quietly alone) option. Lapel microphones and voice operated relays measured seconds of speech. Subjects engaged in greater amounts of conversation and chose the social option more frequently following acute dosing of d-amphetamine and secobarbital compared with placebo. Acute administration of marijuana did not significantly affect social speech or choice behavior, producing slight decreases in both measures. Acute dosing of all drugs significantly increased subjective drug effect or drug high; however, only secobarbital affected the circular lights task, producing significant performance decrements. The shifts in preference toward the social option observed with d-amphetamine and secobarbital suggest that these drugs increased the reinforcing effects of socializing relative to sitting alone. This may be one mechanism by which psychoactive drugs facilitate social conversation.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Spatial guidance of choice behavior in the radial-arm maze.

In 6 experiments, the performance of male rats in a 12-arm radial maze was examined. The focus of study was the extent to which the spatial location of individual baited maze arms was determined before the rat was exposed to the extramaze visual cues corresponding to the arm, and thereby guided the rat toward the location of baited arms. Such spatial guidance of choice behavior implies a spatially organized cognitive representation of maze arms (i.e., a cognitive map). A higher level of spatial guidance was found when visual access to extramaze cues was restricted than when it was unrestricted. There was no evidence of a difference between the level of spatial guidance in the context of working memory performance and reference memory performance. Some evidence that intramaze cues contributed to microchoice guidance was found. However, spatial guidance, under at least some conditions, is best explained in terms of cognitive mapping.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Subliminal stimulation, choice behavior and some personality correlates of subliminal sensitivity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relations between specific personality variables and the effect of subliminal stimulation on choice behavior. It was hypothesized that subjects with low anxiety, less neuroticism, and external locus of control and the trait of extraversion would be more susceptible to subliminal stimulation. 38 undergraduate students were exposed to subliminal messages urging them to choose symbols instead of numbers or letters. Analysis showed that subliminal stimulation did not generate a preference for symbols over numbers or letters. No support was observed for the hypothesis of an association between susceptibility and personality variables. These results may be explained in terms of symbol choice being a neutral message that did not relate to the subjects' needs and motivation.

Arousal↗
PubMed1987

[An experimental analysis on the relation between reward value and choice behavior ].

Six undergraduate students were tested in a two choice situation, exposed to concurrent VI-VI schedules. For group 1-5, tokens earned by pressing the left button were exchanged for one yen, and tokens earned by pressing the right button were exchanged for five yen after the experiment. For group 3-2, tokens earned by pressing the left button were exchanged for three yen, and tokens earned by pressing the right button were exchanged for two yen. The results between log response ratio (time allocation ratio) and log reinforcement ratio were examined by linear regression analysis. The average value of the regression coefficient of group 1-5 was .795 (.832), and the average value of the groups intercept was -.228(-.243). The average coefficient of group 3-2 was .524(.590), and its average intercept was -.033(.021). The results of all subjects revealed undermatching. As for group 1-5, subjects preferred five yen about two times as often as one yen. In group 3-2, however, subjects didn't show a clear pattern of preference.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Behavioral choices based on patch selection: a model using aggregation methods.

The aim of this work is to study the influence of patch selection on the dynamics of a system describing the interactions between two populations, generically called 'population N' and 'population P'. Our model may be applied to prey-predator systems as well as to certain host-parasite or parasitoid systems. A situation in which population P affects the spatial distribution of population N is considered. We deal with a heterogeneous environment composed of two spatial patches: population P lives only in patch 1, while individuals belonging to population N migrate between patch 1 and patch 2, which may be a refuge. Therefore they are divided into two patch sub-populations and can migrate according to different migration laws. We make the assumption that the patch change is fast, whereas the growth and interaction processes are slower. We take advantage of the two time scales to perform aggregation methods in order to obtain a global model describing the time evolution of the total populations, at a slow time scale. At first, a migration law which is independent on population P density is considered. In this case the global model is equivalent to the local one, and under certain conditions, population P always gets extinct. Then, the same model, but in which individuals belonging to population N leave patch 1 proportionally to population P density, is studied. This particular behavioral choice leads to a dynamically richer global system, which favors stability and population coexistence. Finally, we study a third example corresponding to the addition of an aggregative behavior of population N on patch 1. This leads to a more complicated situation in which, according to initial conditions, the global system is described by two different aggregated models. Under certain conditions on parameters a stable limit cycle occurs, leading to periodic variations of the total population densities, as well as of the local densities on the spatial patches.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Choice behavior in transition: development of preference for the higher probability of reinforcement.

Ten acquisition curves were obtained from each of 4 pigeons in a two-choice discrete-trial procedure. In each of these 10 conditions, the two response keys initially had equal probabilities of reinforcement, and subjects' choice responses were about equally divided between the two keys. Then the reinforcement probabilities were changed so that one key had a higher probability of reinforcement (the left key in half of the conditions and the right key in the other half), and in nearly every case the subjects developed a preference for this key. The rate of acquisition of preference for this key was faster when the ratio of the two reinforcement probabilities was higher. For instance, acquisition of preference was faster in conditions with reinforcement probabilities of .12 and .02 than in conditions with reinforcement probabilities of .40 and .30, even though the pairs of probabilities differed by .10 in both cases. These results were used to evaluate the predictions of some theories of transitional behavior in choice situations. A trial-by-trial analysis of individual responses and reinforcers suggested that reinforcement had both short-term and long-term effects on choice. The short-term effect was an increased probability of returning to the same key on the one or two trials following a reinforcer. The long-term effect was a gradual increase in the proportion of responses on the key with the higher probability of reinforcement, an increase that usually continued for several hundred trials.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Behavioral choice: neural mechanisms in Pleurobranchaea.

In the marine mollusk Pleurobranchaea, it is known that feeding occurs and withdrawal from tactile stimuli is suppressed when the sensory stimuli for feeding and withdrawal are presented simultaneously. This "dominance" of feeding behavior over withdrawal behavior occurs because the central nervous network controlling feeding inhibits the central nervous network controlling withdrawal. The inhibition is mediated by a bilaterally symmetrical pair of reidentifiable feeding neurons that are members of the "corollary discharge" population in the buccal ganglion. This study supports the hypothesis that inhibitory interactions between competing motor systems are responsible for the "singleness of action" that characterizes animal behavior.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of ethanol self-administration on choice behavior: money vs. socializing.

Volunteer chronic alcoholic subjects were exposed to a discrete-trail choice procedure within a residential research setting. Twelve daily trials occurred at 20 min intervals. In each trial a subject chose between 2 mutually exclusive options involving either receipt of money or the opportunity for socializing. The effect of ethanol self-administration was evaluated by requiring randomly over days that a subject consume either 8 drinks of orange juice or 8 drinks of ethanol (89.12 g ethanol total). For all 4 subjects, the mean rate of choosing socialization over money was significantly greater on sessions involving ethanol self-administration than on sessions involving orange juice self-administration.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Choice behavior in transition: development of preference with ratio and interval schedules.

In Experiment 1, the choice responses of 8 pigeons were observed during 50 periods of transition. Each condition began with equal probabilities of reinforcement on 2 response keys and switched to unequal probabilities. With the ratio of the 2 probabilities held constant, preference for the higher probability developed more rapidly when the 2 probabilities were high than when they were low. In Experiment 2, each condition began with 2 equal variable-interval schedules, but later 1 key delivered 60%, 75%, or 90% of the reinforcers. The rate of approach to asymptotic performance was roughly the same with all 3 reinforcement percentages. These and previous results pose difficulties for some well-known models of acquisition, but the results are well described by a simple model that states that the strength of each response is independently increased by reinforcement and decreased by nonreinforcement.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Animal choice behavior and the evolution of cognitive architecture.

Animals process sensory information according to specific computational rules and, subsequently, form representations of their environments that form the basis for decisions and choices. The specific computational rules used by organisms will often be evolutionarily adaptive by generating higher probabilities of survival, reproduction, and resource acquisition. Experiments with enclosed colonies of bumblebees constrained to foraging on artificial flowers suggest that the bumblebee's cognitive architecture is designed to efficiently exploit floral resources from spatially structured environments given limits on memory and the neuronal processing of information. A non-linear relationship between the biomechanics of nectar extraction and rates of net energetic gain by individual bees may account for sensitivities to both the arithmetic mean and variance in reward distributions in flowers. Heuristic rules that lead to efficient resource exploitation may also lead to subjective misperception of likelihoods. Subjective probability formation may then be viewed as a problem in pattern recognition subject to specific sampling schemes and memory constraints.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Risky-choice behavior: a life-span analysis.

The purpose of the present study was to systemically test the hypothesis that older people adopt risk-avoiding strategies when faced with risky-choice situations. Ninety-six adults, representing four age cohorts, filled out a risk-taking questionnaire consisting of twelve situations demanding a choice between a safe and a risky option. One-half of the choices involved potential losses, the other half involved potential gains. The results indicated that older adults choose no more safe alternatives than do younger adults. Additionally, for all age cohorts, risk avoiding was more evident when choices were between risky and certain gains than when choices were between risky and certain losses. This pattern of responding suggests that older adults do not necessarily adopt a general strategy of avoiding risk options when a safe alternative is available. Instead, risk avoiding, for all age cohorts, appears to be influenced by the parameters of the choice situation.

Adult↗