Effort Foraging (Apple Patches)
Foraging Constantino, S. M. & Daw, N. D. (2015) - Learning the opportunity cost of time in a patch-foraging task, Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 15(4):837-853, doi:10.3758/s13415-015-0350-y. (Bustamante et al. 2023 PNAS adapts this paradigm by replacing the travel-TIME manipulation with a travel-EFFORT one; this port manipulates travel time and so follows Constantino & Daw.)Foraging on a series of apple patches. Each patch yields rewards that decay with each harvest. On every trial the agent chooses to STAY (F) and harvest the patch again, or LEAVE (J) and travel to a fresh patch — travel costs real wall-clock seconds (4 in low-cost blocks, 8 in high-cost) before the next decision is offered. The marginal value theorem predicts longer residence times when travel is more costly.
Parameters
Trials
80
Blocks
2
Response Type
Keyboard
Response Deadline
5000ms
Response Keys
F, J