Making decisions between different courses of action is fundamental to adaptive behavior. A starling deciding how many worms to bring back to the nest, a squirrel deciding which picnic table to raid, and an investor deciding which stocks to buy, all face choices with important consequences for survival and/or economic well being. The proposed research aims to better understand adaptive choice and decision making in humans and other animals. The work involves detailed comparisons of pigeons and humans in experimental procedures with contrasting short-term and longer-term consequences. In addition to providing systematic data on a topic of theoretical and applied significance, the proposed research is designed to shed light on the cross-species generality of decision-making strategies. Such generality across species has been called into question by several lines of evidence, but it is unclear at present whether species differences on such tasks reflect differences in process or differences in procedure. The proposed research would explore the latter possibility by examining the choice patterns of humans and other animals under closely analogous laboratory conditions. This will provide important information on the continuity of choice patterns across species, and on the degree to which principles discovered in the animal laboratory can be extended to fairly complex human activity. In identifying factors contributing to adaptive choice, this research may also provide a starting point for developing effective self-management techniques in humans.
