Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones en Comportamiento, Universidad de Guadalajara.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2019 Sep;112(2):167-176. doi: 10.1002/jeab.548. Epub 2019 Sep 15.
To study how effort affects reward value, we replicated Fortes, Vasconcelos and Machado's (2015) study using an adjusting-delay task. Nine pigeons chose between a standard alternative that gave access to 4 s of food, after a 10 s delay, and an adjusting-delay alternative that gave access to 12 s of food after a delay that changed dynamically with the pigeons' choices, decreasing when they preferred the standard alternative, and increasing when they preferred the adjusting alternative. The delay value at which preference stabilized defined the indifference point, a measure of reward value. To manipulate effort across phases, we varied the response rate required during the delay of the standard alternative. Results showed that a) the indifference point increased in the higher-response-rate phases, suggesting that reward value decreased with effort, and b) in the higher-response-rate phases, response rate in the standard alternative was linearly related to the indifference point. We advance several conceptions of how effort may change perceived delay or amount and thereby affect reward value.
为了研究努力如何影响奖励价值，我们使用调整延迟任务复制了 Fortes、Vasconcelos 和 Machado（2015 年）的研究。九只鸽子在标准选择和调整延迟选择之间进行选择，标准选择可在 10 秒延迟后获得 4 秒的食物，而调整延迟选择可在延迟动态变化的情况下获得 12 秒的食物，当鸽子更喜欢标准选择时，延迟会减少，当他们更喜欢调整选择时，延迟会增加。偏好稳定的延迟值定义了无差异点，这是奖励价值的一种衡量标准。为了在不同阶段操纵努力程度，我们改变了标准选择延迟期间所需的反应率。结果表明，a）在高反应率阶段，无差异点增加，表明奖励价值随努力而降低，b）在高反应率阶段，标准选择中的反应率与无差异点呈线性关系。我们提出了几种关于努力如何改变感知延迟或数量，从而影响奖励价值的概念。
