Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506-0044, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2021 Jun;28(3):1015-1020. doi: 10.3758/s13423-020-01872-y. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
The reverse-contingency task is a task in which one is given a choice between two rewards, but one receives the larger amount only if one chooses the smaller amount. This task is very difficult for chimpanzees unless the choice is between symbolic representations of the amounts. We found that pigeons can learn this task easily, if the reward amounts are associated with distinctive colors and the choice is delayed by 5 s. The reverse-contingency task involves three components: a loss when choosing one alternative, a gain when choosing the other, and the contrast between what was expected and what occurred. In Experiment 2 we separated the loss from the gain and found that experiencing a loss is sufficient for pigeons to learn to avoid that alternative. Finally, we found evidence for perceived loss aversion. When pigeons were offered a small amount of food and they received that amount, they preferred it over an alternative that offered them a larger amount but gave them only the smaller amount (a perceived loss). The results indicate that loss aversion, based on reference dependence, is likely a general phenomenon, and not only found in humans and other primates. We suggest that it can be attributed to contrast, the difference between what is expected and what is obtained, and it is related to the endowment effect and the mere ownership effect found in humans.
逆关联任务是指在两个奖励之间进行选择，但只有选择较小的奖励才能获得较大的奖励。除非选择的是奖励金额的象征性表示，否则对于黑猩猩来说，这个任务非常困难。我们发现，如果奖励金额与独特的颜色相关联，并且选择可以延迟 5 秒，鸽子可以很容易地学习这个任务。逆关联任务涉及三个组成部分：选择一个替代方案时会损失，选择另一个替代方案时会获得，以及预期和实际发生之间的对比。在实验 2 中，我们将损失与收益分开，发现鸽子经历损失足以使其学会避免选择那个替代方案。最后，我们发现了对感知损失厌恶的证据。当鸽子获得少量食物时，它们更喜欢得到那少量食物，而不是另一种选择，这种选择会给它们提供更多的食物，但只给它们少量食物（感知损失）。结果表明，基于参照依赖的损失厌恶很可能是一种普遍现象，不仅存在于人类和其他灵长类动物中。我们认为，它可以归因于对比，即预期和获得之间的差异，并且与人类中发现的禀赋效应和单纯所有权效应有关。
