Eastern Psychological Association (EPA)

Sunday, March 3, 2013 1:30-2:50 PM

Risky Choice in Humans and Other Animals

Chairs: Elliot A. Ludvig (Princeton University), Christopher R. Madan, & Marcia L. Spetch (University of Alberta)

In risky choice, there is often a divergence between the behavior of humans and other animals. One possible source for these discrepancies lies in that animals only learn about risky options through their own experiences, whereas people can draw on multiple sources of information. This symposium examines recent work on experience-based choice in both humans and other animals, highlighting similarities and differences in research goals, methodologies, and results.

Experience-based choice in real-world decisions environments

Christoph Ungemach, Katherine Thompson, & Elke Weber (Columbia University)

Prior research on the Description Experience Gap has demonstrated that people show different preferences in decisions under risk when outcome probabilities are learned through experience. Compared to the risky gambles typically used in laboratory studies, real-world decisions often involve more complex outcome distributions and trade-offs between described and experienced information. Our research evaluates the implications of existing findings on experience-based choice for tasks that more closely address the complexities inherent to real-world decisions environments.

Of people and pigeons: The comparative cognition of experience-based choice

Elliot A. Ludvig (Princeton University), Christopher R. Madan, & Marcia L. Spetch (University of Alberta)

In an experience-based choice task, we show that people are risk seeking for options that led to relatively large gains in the past and, conversely, are risk averse for those options that led to large losses. When faced with the identical reward structure in a spatial foraging task, current evidence indicates that pigeons show the same risk preferences. This comparative confluence suggests a common core mechanism of risk processing across phyla.

An animal model of gambling behavior: Determinants of suboptimal choice by pigeons

Thomas R. Zentall, Jessica P. Stagner, & Jennifer R. Laude (University of Kentucky)

Pigeons prefer an alternative that provides a stimulus 20% of the time that is associated with 100% reinforcement over an alternative that provides a stimulus 100% of the time that predicts 50% reinforcement. We propose that analogous to human gambling, this preference occurs because reliable signals for reinforcement are more reinforcing and signals for the absence of reinforcement a less aversive than their frequency suggests either of them should be.

Environmental rearing effects on decision making

Kimberly Kirkpatrick (Kansas State University)

Rats were reared in enriched vs. isolated environments and then were given risky and impulsive decision making tasks. The enriched rats displayed greater self-controlled responses, but were less likely to make risky choices. Overall, there was a strong negative correlation between the two tasks so that the rats that were the most risk-prone were also the most impulsive. The results are discussed in relation to domain-general vs. domain-specific valuation processes that affect decision making.