Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 26, 2026
07:05
Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents
Published on: September 10, 2018
Frequency-dependent payoffs and sequential decision-making favour consistent tactic use.
Frédérique Dubois1, Luc-Alain Giraldeau, Denis Réale
1Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada. frederique.dubois@umontreal.ca
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|January 6, 2012
Summary
Individual differences in using personal versus social information are linked to personality. Our model shows decision order, not just personality, influences information use in foraging games.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Ecology
- Evolutionary Game Theory
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Individuals often show consistent differences in how they weigh personal versus social information.
- These differences are correlated with personality traits, suggesting a direct link between personality and information use.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the sequence of decision-making, rather than personality directly, influences information use in social contexts.
- To test a novel explanation for the correlation between personality and information use in frequency-dependent scenarios.
Main Methods:
- Developed an individual-based model simulating a producer-scrounger game with sequential decision-making.
- Modeled animals entering a foraging area in a specific order to enforce decision sequence.
Main Results:
- The order of decision-making significantly influenced the average tactic use of individuals.
- Decision sequence also affected individual plasticity in information use, mirroring observed personality correlations.
Conclusions:
- The sequence of decisions, influenced by factors like arrival order, can explain correlations between personality and social information use.
- This provides an alternative explanation to direct personality effects on information gathering strategies.
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