Gomes-Ng Stephanie, Gray Quinn, Cowie Sarah
Department of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology.
School of Psychology, University of Auckland.
J Comp Psychol. 2025 Feb;139(1):26-41. doi: 10.1037/com0000387. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
Typical approaches to study self-control present subjects with a simultaneous choice between a larger-later (LL) reinforcer and a smaller-sooner (SS) reinforcer. In contrast, in patch-leaving tasks, subjects choose between staying at a patch for an SS (or LL) reinforcer and leaving for an LL (or SS) reinforcer. Previous studies show that blue jays, monkeys, humans, and rats prefer the SS reinforcer in binary-choice tasks, whereas the same subjects prefer the LL reinforcer in equivalent patch-leaving tasks. The current study systematically replicated this research using pigeons. Six pigeons responded in a binary-choice task and in two patch-leaving tasks in which staying led to an LL (Patch-L) or SS (Patch-S) reinforcer. Across conditions, the SS reinforcer delay varied from 5 to 55 s; the LL reinforcer delay was always 60 s. In binary-choice conditions, subjects preferred the SS reinforcer. In Patch-L and Patch-S conditions, subjects preferred the LL and SS reinforcer, respectively, reflecting a bias to stay at the patch. This bias persisted when the stay response was more effortful and when the delays to both reinforcers were equal. This may reflect a species-specific win-stay bias and the differential consequences of staying (which led to a stimulus signaling food) versus leaving (which led to a stimulus never associated with food). Thus, we propose a conditioned-reinforcement account of intertemporal choice in patch-leaving contexts. We suggest several avenues for further investigations of the mechanisms underlying intertemporal choice in different contexts and question the economic equivalence of the operant and patch-leaving procedures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
研究自我控制的典型方法是让受试者在较大延迟强化物（LL）和较小即时强化物（SS）之间同时做出选择。相比之下，在斑块离开任务中，受试者要在为了获得SS（或LL）强化物而留在斑块和为了获得LL（或SS）强化物而离开之间做出选择。先前的研究表明，蓝鸦、猴子、人类和大鼠在二元选择任务中更喜欢SS强化物，而在等效的斑块离开任务中，相同的受试者更喜欢LL强化物。本研究使用鸽子系统地重复了这项研究。六只鸽子在二元选择任务和两个斑块离开任务中做出反应，在这两个任务中，停留会导致获得LL（斑块-L）或SS（斑块-S）强化物。在所有条件下，SS强化物的延迟从5秒到55秒不等；LL强化物的延迟始终为60秒。在二元选择条件下，受试者更喜欢SS强化物。在斑块-L和斑块-S条件下，受试者分别更喜欢LL和SS强化物，这反映了一种留在斑块的偏向。当停留反应更费力且两种强化物的延迟相等时，这种偏向仍然存在。这可能反映了一种物种特异性的赢则停留偏向，以及停留（这会导致一个表示食物的刺激）与离开（这会导致一个从未与食物相关联的刺激）的不同后果。因此，我们提出了一种在斑块离开情境中跨期选择的条件强化解释。我们建议了几个进一步研究不同情境下跨期选择潜在机制的途径，并质疑操作性程序和斑块离开程序在经济上的等效性。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
