Speed–accuracy tradeoffs in animal decision making

Chittka, Lars; Skorupski, Peter; Raine, Nigel E.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.02.010

Cited by 528 publications

(481 citation statements)

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“…These same models have been used in neurophysiology to provide a quantitative link between behavioural decisions and the differential firing rates of neurons coding for selected and nonselected alternatives (Glimcher 2003;Ratcliff 2001;Shadlen and Newsome 2001;Smith and Ratcliff 2004) and they have been recently introduced in behavioural ecology to study the 25 speed-accuracy tradeoffs in animal decision making (Trimmer et al 2008;Chittka et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since in humans (Busemeyer and Townsend 1993) and in other animals as well (review in Chittka et al 2009), accuracy in decision making depends on the evaluation time, it seems 7 plausible that a "normative" model of mate choice should relate female fitness not only to the accuracy with which females sample the male population ('sampling accuracy'), but also to the accuracy with which they evaluate each prospective mate ('assessment accuracy'). Luttbeg (1996,2002) presented a model of 'comparative Bayes' choice in which females have control over the accuracy of their mate evaluation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sampling and assessment accuracy in mate choice: A random-walk model of information processing in mating decision

Castellano

Cermelli

2011

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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Cite this article as: Sergio Castellano and Paolo Cermelli, Sampling and assessment accuracy in mate choice: a random-walk model of information processing in mating decision., Journal of Theoretical Biology, doi:10.1016Biology, doi:10. /j.jtbi.2011 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. ABSTRACTMate choice depends on mating preferences and on the manner in which mate-quality information is acquired and used to make decisions. We present a model that describes how these two components of mating decision interact with each other during a comparative evaluation of prospective mates. The model, with its well-explored precedents in psychology and neurophysiology, assumes that decisions are made by the integration over time of noisy information until a stopping-rule criterion is reached. Due to this informational approach, the model builds a coherent theoretical framework for developing an integrated view of functions and mechanisms of mating decisions. From a functional point of view, the model allows us to investigate speed-accuracy tradeoffs in mating decision at both population and individual levels.It shows that, under strong time constraints, decision makers are expected to make fast and frugal decisions and to optimally trade off population-sampling accuracy (i.e. the number of sampled males) against individual-assessment accuracy (i.e. the time spent for evaluating each mate).From the proximate-mechanism point of view, the model makes testable predictions on the interactions of mating preferences and choosiness in different contexts and it might be of compelling empirical utility for a context-independent description of mating preference strength.4

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling and assessment accuracy in mate choice: A random-walk model of information processing in mating decision

Castellano

Cermelli

2011

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…Sequential-sampling models of decision making are a dynamic variant of signal detection models (Pleskac and Busemeyer, 2010), in that they drop the assumption that decision makers use a fixed sample size of evidence and assume that decision is made as soon as the accumulating noisy evidence reaches a fixed threshold (Castellano, 2009a;Castellano and Cermelli, 2011). Unlike signal detection models, sequential-sampling models incorporate time in the decision process and, thus, they could be used for investigating speed-accuracy tradeoffs in decision making (Chittka et al, 2009;Sullivan, 1994) and for making testable predictions on the relationship between choice probability and time response (Kacelnik et al, 2011;Shapiro et al, 2008). Although these models have been only recently introduced in behavioural ecology (Castellano and Cermelli, 2011;Kacelnik et al, 2011;Shapiro et al, 2008;Trimmer et al, 2008), they have a long history in cognitive psychology (review in Ratcliff and Smith, 2004) and in neurobiology (review in Bogacz, 2007;Gold and Shadlen, 2007;Smith and Ratcliff, 2004) and they could represent a useful theoretical tool for building bridges between neurobiology and behaviour (Busemeyer et al, 2006).…”

Section: Sequential Sampling Models Of Mate Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Computational mate choice: Theory and empirical evidence

Castellano

Cadeddu

Cermelli

2012

Behavioural Processes

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a b s t r a c tThe present review is based on the thesis that mate choice results from information-processing mechanisms governed by computational rules and that, to understand how females choose their mates, we should identify which are the sources of information and how they are used to make decisions. We describe mate choice as a three-step computational process and for each step we present theories and review empirical evidence. The first step is a perceptual process. It describes the acquisition of evidence, that is, how females use multiple cues and signals to assign an attractiveness value to prospective mates (the preference function hypothesis). The second step is a decisional process. It describes the construction of the decision variable (DV), which integrates evidence (private information by direct assessment), priors (public information), and value (perceived utility) of prospective mates into a quantity that is used by a decision rule (DR) to produce a choice. We make the assumption that females are optimal Bayesian decision makers and we derive a formal model of DV that can explain the effects of preference functions, mate copying, social context, and females' state and condition on the patterns of mate choice. The third step of mating decision is a deliberative process that depends on the DRs. We identify two main categories of DRs (absolute and comparative rules), and review the normative models of mate sampling tactics associated to them. We highlight the limits of the normative approach and present a class of computational models (sequential-sampling models) that are based on the assumption that DVs accumulate noisy evidence over time until a decision threshold is reached. These models force us to rethink the dichotomy between comparative and absolute decision rules, between discrimination and recognition, and even between rational and irrational choice. Since they have a robust biological basis, we think they may represent a useful theoretical tool for behavioural ecologist interested in integrating proximate and ultimate causes of mate choice.

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“…Speed -accuracy trade-offs are central to many animal decisions, such as mate choice, predator avoidance and foraging [4], with the cost of making a mistake varying from choosing a suboptimal food patch or mate to being eaten by a cryptic predator. Speed -accuracy trade-offs can occur for several reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speed–accuracy trade-offs during foraging decisions in the acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum

Latty

Beekman

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Speed-accuracy trade-offs (SATs) are thought to be a fundamental feature of biological information processing, yet most evidence of SATs comes from animals. Here, we examine SATs in the foraging decisions of an acellular, amoeboid organism: the slime mould Physarum polycephalum. Slime moulds were given a simple discrimination task: selecting the highest-quality food item from a set of three options. We investigated the effect of two stressors, light exposure and hunger, on the speed and accuracy of decision-making. We also examined the effect of task difficulty. When given a difficult discrimination task, stressed individuals tend to make faster decisions than non-stressed individuals. This effect was reversed in plasmodia given easy discrimination tasks, where stressed individuals made slower decisions than non-stressed individuals. We found evidence of SATs, such that individuals who made fast decisions were more likely to make costly errors by selecting the worst possible food option. Our results suggest that SATs occur in a wider range of taxa than previously considered.

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Speed–accuracy tradeoffs in animal decision making

Cited by 528 publications

References 68 publications

Sampling and assessment accuracy in mate choice: A random-walk model of information processing in mating decision

Sampling and assessment accuracy in mate choice: A random-walk model of information processing in mating decision

Computational mate choice: Theory and empirical evidence

Speed–accuracy trade-offs during foraging decisions in the acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum

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