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When good news leads to bad choices
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McDevitt, Margaret A. , Dunn, Roger M., Spetch, Marcia L. and Ludvig, Elliot Andrew (2016) When good news leads to bad choices. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 105 (1). pp. 23-40. doi:10.1002/jeab.192 ISSN 0022-5002.
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WRAP_1275607-ps-191115-mcdevitt_et_al_revision-eaw.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1597Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jeab.192
Abstract
Pigeons and other animals sometimes deviate from optimal choice behavior when given informative signals for delayed outcomes. For example, when pigeons are given a choice between an alternative that always leads to food after a delay and an alternative that leads to food only half of the time after a delay, preference changes dramatically depending on whether the stimuli during the delays are correlated with (signal) the outcomes or not. With signaled outcomes, pigeons show a much greater preference for the suboptimal alternative than with unsignaled outcomes. Key variables and research findings related to this phenomenon are reviewed, including the effects of durations of the choice and delay periods, probability of reinforcement, and gaps in the signal. We interpret the available evidence as reflecting a preference induced by signals for good news in a context of uncertainty. Other explanations are briefly summarized and compared.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Alternative Title: | |||||||||||
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory Q Science > QP Physiology |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Preferences (Philosophy), Reinforcement (Psychology), Conditioned response, Behavioral assessment, Animal behavior -- Endocrine aspects, Decision making, Choice (Psychology) | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 0022-5002 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | January 2016 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 105 | ||||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 23-40 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1002/jeab.192 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 31 May 2016 | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 18 January 2017 | ||||||||||
Funder: | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) |
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