Explicit information reduces discounting behavior in monkeys.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral economics
• Animal cognition
• Primate behavior

Background:

• Animals often exhibit impulsive choices in laboratory settings, preferring immediate smaller rewards over larger delayed ones.
• This contrasts with natural behaviors like food caching and long-distance foraging, which require significant patience.
• Standard delay discounting tasks may artificially inflate perceived impulsivity by disrupting natural learning strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if standard delay discounting tasks overestimate animal impulsivity.
• To determine if cueing delays influences decision-making in rhesus macaques.
• To assess if animals prioritize reward rate maximization when provided with complete information.

Main Methods:

• Rhesus macaques completed two variants of a delay discounting task.
• One variant used conventional uncued, constant-length trials.
• The second variant employed explicitly cued delays for all choices.

Main Results:

• Delay discounting was significantly reduced in the cued task compared to the uncued task.
• Discount parameters in the cued task were substantially lower than typically reported.
• Monkeys' choices in the cued task aligned with reward rate maximization strategies.

Conclusions:

• Laboratory measures of delay discounting may overstate animal impulsivity.
• Rhesus macaques demonstrate greater patience when provided with complete information about delays.
• The design of delay discounting tasks can significantly impact the assessment of animal patience and decision-making strategies.