Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 12, 2025
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Author Spotlight: Exploring Behavioral Pathways Through Cross-Species Insights in Foraging and Communication
Published on: November 17, 2023
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Feedback based on simple strategies facilitates strategy execution and selection in foraging
Hsuan-Yu Lin1, Bettina von Helversen2
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human and Health Sciences, University of Bremen, Hochschulring 18, 28359, Bremen, Germany. hslin@uni-bremen.de.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 5, 2025
Summary
Providing feedback on foraging patch-leaving behavior helps humans improve. Participants either switched to a better strategy or applied their current one more effectively, enhancing foraging performance.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Foraging Theory
Background:
- Human foraging behavior often exhibits suboptimal patch-leaving strategies.
- Suboptimal performance arises from poor strategy choice and inefficient application.
- Understanding how to improve foraging efficiency is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if feedback can enhance human patch-leaving behavior in foraging tasks.
- To determine if feedback facilitates strategy switching or improves strategy execution.
- To explore the impact of different feedback types (fixed-time vs. giving-up-time) on performance.
Main Methods:
- Participants completed a patch-leaving task across three sessions: pre-feedback, feedback, and post-feedback.
- Computational modeling identified participants' patch-leaving strategies.
- Feedback was provided based on either the fixed-time (FT) or giving-up-time (GUT) strategy.
Main Results:
- Most participants initially used the giving-up-time (GUT) strategy.
- In the fixed-time (FT) feedback group, participants who switched to FT strategy improved performance.
- In the GUT feedback group, participants refined their GUT strategy execution, leading to improved performance.
Conclusions:
- Feedback can enhance foraging efficiency by enabling adaptation to more suitable strategies.
- Feedback also improves performance through more precise application of existing strategies.
- Tailored feedback is key to optimizing human decision-making in foraging contexts.
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