Delays to food-predictive stimuli do not affect suboptimal choice in rats

A variety of animals sometimes engage in a form of maladaptive decision-making characterized by repeatedly choosing an option providing food-predictive stimuli even though they earn less food for doing so. The temporal information-theoretic model suggests that such suboptimal choice depends on competition between the bits of temporal information conveyed by food-predictive stimuli (which encourages suboptimal choice) and the rate of food delivery (which encourages optimal choice). The model assumes that competition between these two sources of control is based on the ratio of the delay to food (D) and the delay to food-predictive stimuli (D) at the choice point (i.e., D Research with both rats and pigeons suggests that temporal information outcompetes the rate of food delivery, thereby generating suboptimal choice, when the delay to food (D) is sufficiently long. Limited data with pigeons, and none with rats, suggests that the rate of food delivery outcompetes temporal information, thereby generating optimal choice, when the delay to food-predictive stimuli (D) is sufficiently long. The present experiment sought to clarify whether longer delays to food-predictive stimuli decrease suboptimal choice in rats. We found that while longer delays to food (Df) increased suboptimal choice in rats, longer delays to food-predictive stimuli (D) did not decrease suboptimal choice. These results suggest a potential difference between rats and pigeons in the manner in which food-predictive stimuli and food itself compete to control choice. In terms of the temporal information-theoretic model, competition between temporal information and the rate of food delivery in rats appears to be influenced only by the delay to food at the choice point. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).