Choice between repleting/depleting patches: A concurrent-schedule procedure.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral economics
• Animal behavior

Background:

• Reinforcer availability influences foraging decisions.
• Patch residence times are critical in foraging models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how pigeons allocate responses and time between patches with varying reinforcer depletion and repletion rates.
• To test predictions from melioration and molar maximization theories.

Main Methods:

• Six pigeons were trained on concurrent schedules of reinforcement.
• Reinforcer stores replenished based on time since last visit to the other patch (repletion) and depleted based on responding within a patch (depletion).
• Relative and absolute rates of depletion and repletion were systematically manipulated across experiments.

Main Results:

• Response and time allocation ratios matched obtained reinforcer ratios, supporting a generalized matching relation.
• Reinforcer store size did not influence allocation.
• Dwell times in patches remained unaffected by variations in absolute depletion or repletion rates.

Conclusions:

• Pigeons' foraging behavior aligns with generalized matching predictions.
• Melioration theory accurately predicted some but not all experimental outcomes, while molar maximization theory failed to predict the observed behavior.
• The study highlights the complexity of foraging decisions under dynamic reinforcement schedules.