Decision-Making Parallels Between Humans And Animals
Drawing parallels between human and animal decision-making
People are always choosing between many complex choices throughout their daily lives. Which bank should I open an account under? Should I walk or drive to work? Do I want to cook dinner or just order a pizza? To make these decisions, people often balance the advantages and disadvantages for each choice. This can be done explicitly, by making an actual list of pros and cons, or implicitly, when a person ‘follows their gut’ and chooses without thinking.
However, humans are not the only animals that make decisions. From the proud lion prowling the African savannah to the graceful house cat of a New York apartment, all animals must make decisions throughout their lives. So how do other animals make choices, and is their decision-making process anything like that of humans? Over the past 50 years, behavior analysts have been studying animals in the lab to try and answer these very questions.
References
Baum, W. M. (1974). On two types of deviation from the matching law: Bias and undermatching. Journal Of The Experimental Analysis Of Behavior, 22(1), 231-242. doi:10.1901/jeab.1974.22-231
Borrero, J. C., Crisolo, S. S., Tu, Q., Rieland, W. A., Ross, N. A., Francisco, M. T., & Yamamoto, K. Y. (2007). An application of the matching law to social dynamics. Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(4), 589-601. doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.589-601
Reed, D. D., Critchfield, T. S., & Martens, B. K. (2006). The generalized matching law in elite sport competition: Football play calling as operant choice. Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis, 39(3), 281-297. doi:10.1901/jaba.2006.146-05
Romanowich, P., Bourret, J., & Vollmer, T. R. (2007). Further analysis of the matching law to describe two- and three-point shot allocation by professional basketball players. Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(2), 311-315. doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.119-05
About the Author
Daniel Bell-Garrison
Daniel has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Philosophy, and recently earned his Master’s degree in Psychology. He is currently a PhD candidate at West Virginia University studying choice and timing of non-human animals.
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