Orduña Vladimir, Alba Rodrigo
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México D.F., 04510, Mexico.
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México D.F., 04510, Mexico.
Behav Processes. 2019 May;162:104-111. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.02.002. Epub 2019 Feb 8.
Among the different procedures that model gambling behavior in non-human animals, the "suboptimal choice procedure" has been extensively employed for analyzing the impact of environmental cues on choice behavior. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that pigeons prefer an alternative that infrequently presents a stimulus that signals a larger amount of reinforcement, than another alternative that always presents a stimulus associated with a smaller amount of reinforcement, even though the net rate of reinforcement is lower in the former. In the present study, we tested rats in the magnitude version of the suboptimal choice procedure. Eight rats were given a choice between two alternatives: a) one in which a stimulus predicting the delivery of ten pellets was presented with probability (p) = 0.2 and a stimulus predicting zero pellets was presented with p = 0.8, and b) one in which either of two stimuli predicted the delivery of three pellets with p = 1.0. Contrary to the consistent and robust suboptimal behavior of pigeons, rats preferred the optimal alternative. This effect occurred despite the high index of discrimination of the stimuli associated with the different outcomes shown by the rats. The relevance of this result to the development of animal models of gambling behavior is discussed.
在模拟非人类动物赌博行为的不同程序中，“次优选择程序”已被广泛用于分析环境线索对选择行为的影响。研究反复表明，鸽子更喜欢一种替代方案，即较少出现预示大量强化物的刺激的方案，而不是另一种总是出现与少量强化物相关的刺激的替代方案，即使前者的强化物净速率较低。在本研究中，我们在次优选择程序的量级版本中对大鼠进行了测试。八只大鼠在两种替代方案之间进行选择：a）一种方案中，预测给予十粒食丸的刺激出现概率（p）=0.2，预测给予零粒食丸的刺激出现概率p=0.8；b）另一种方案中，两种刺激中的任何一种预测给予三粒食丸的概率p=1.0。与鸽子一贯且强烈的次优行为相反，大鼠更喜欢最优替代方案。尽管大鼠对与不同结果相关的刺激具有较高的辨别指数，但这种效应仍然出现。本文讨论了这一结果与赌博行为动物模型发展的相关性。
