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Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys

This study investigated how the experience of different reward distributions would shape the utility functions that can be inferred from economic choice. Despite the generally accepted notion that utility functions are not insensitive to external references, the exact way in which such changes take...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bujold, Philipe M., Ferrari-Toniolo, Simone, Schultz, Wolfram
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8346953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34000666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104764
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author Bujold, Philipe M.
Ferrari-Toniolo, Simone
Schultz, Wolfram
author_facet Bujold, Philipe M.
Ferrari-Toniolo, Simone
Schultz, Wolfram
author_sort Bujold, Philipe M.
collection PubMed
description This study investigated how the experience of different reward distributions would shape the utility functions that can be inferred from economic choice. Despite the generally accepted notion that utility functions are not insensitive to external references, the exact way in which such changes take place remains largely unknown. Here we benefitted from the capacity to engage in thorough and prolonged empirical tests of economic choice by one of our evolutionary cousins, the rhesus macaque. We analyzed data from thousands of binary choices and found that the animals' preferences changed depending on the statistics of rewards experienced in the past (up to weeks) and that these changes could reflect monkeys' adapting their expectations of reward. The utility functions we elicited from their choices stretched and shifted over several months of sequential changes in the mean and range of rewards that the macaques experienced. However, this adaptation was usually incomplete, suggesting that – even after months - past experiences held weight when monkeys' assigned value to future rewards. Rather than having stable and fixed preferences assumed by normative economic models, our results demonstrate that rhesus macaques flexibly shape their preferences around the past and present statistics of their environment. That is, rather than relying on a singular reference-point, reference-dependent preferences are likely to capture a monkey's range of expectations.
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spelling pubmed-83469532021-09-01 Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys Bujold, Philipe M. Ferrari-Toniolo, Simone Schultz, Wolfram Cognition Article This study investigated how the experience of different reward distributions would shape the utility functions that can be inferred from economic choice. Despite the generally accepted notion that utility functions are not insensitive to external references, the exact way in which such changes take place remains largely unknown. Here we benefitted from the capacity to engage in thorough and prolonged empirical tests of economic choice by one of our evolutionary cousins, the rhesus macaque. We analyzed data from thousands of binary choices and found that the animals' preferences changed depending on the statistics of rewards experienced in the past (up to weeks) and that these changes could reflect monkeys' adapting their expectations of reward. The utility functions we elicited from their choices stretched and shifted over several months of sequential changes in the mean and range of rewards that the macaques experienced. However, this adaptation was usually incomplete, suggesting that – even after months - past experiences held weight when monkeys' assigned value to future rewards. Rather than having stable and fixed preferences assumed by normative economic models, our results demonstrate that rhesus macaques flexibly shape their preferences around the past and present statistics of their environment. That is, rather than relying on a singular reference-point, reference-dependent preferences are likely to capture a monkey's range of expectations. Elsevier 2021-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8346953/ /pubmed/34000666 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104764 Text en © 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bujold, Philipe M.
Ferrari-Toniolo, Simone
Schultz, Wolfram
Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title_full Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title_fullStr Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title_full_unstemmed Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title_short Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
title_sort adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8346953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34000666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104764
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