In the suboptimal choice procedure, pigeons systematically choose an alternative associated with stimuli that indicate the presence or absence of a reward and with a smaller probability of reinforcement, over another option associated with noninformative stimuli, and a higher probability of reinforcement. In contrast, rats generally show the opposite preference. A recent hypothesis for explaining this difference suggests that both species would prefer the discriminative alternative in situations in which the stimuli have incentive salience. However, this hypothesis has not been confirmed in rats. The null relationship between incentive salience and performance in the suboptimal choice procedure stands in contrast to the strong influence that incentive salience has been shown to have in other choice protocols. A possible explanation for this difference is that in the suboptimal choice procedure, the incentive salience is normally shared by both alternatives and subjects attribute the same incentive salience to them. To analyze this possibility, we presented an asymmetrical arrangement of the incentive salience between the discriminative and the non-discriminative alternatives in order to evaluate its impact on suboptimal choice. We also examined whether rats classified as sign-trackers are more influenced by this asymmetrical arrangement. The results showed that the alternative with higher incentive salience attracted more preference and that this effect was stronger for sign-tracking subjects. These results suggest a strong relationship between preference in the suboptimal choice procedure and the incentive salience attributed to the different alternatives.

中文翻译：

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在“次优选择”过程中，刺激偏向的激励显着性会影响大鼠的偏好

在次优选择程序中，鸽子系统地选择与刺激相关的替代方案，这些刺激表明存在或不存在奖励，并且强化概率较小，而不是与非信息刺激相关的另一个选项，强化概率较高。相比之下，大鼠通常表现出相反的偏好。最近用于解释这种差异的假设表明，在刺激具有激励显着性的情况下，两个物种都更喜欢有区别的替代方案。然而，这一假设尚未在大鼠中得到证实。次优选择程序中激励显着性和绩效之间的零关系与激励显着性在其他选择协议中显示出的强大影响形成鲜明对比。这种差异的一个可能解释是，在次优选择过程中，激励显着性通常由替代方案共享，并且受试者将相同的激励显着性归于他们。为了分析这种可能性，我们提出了歧视性和非歧视性替代方案之间激​​励显着性的不对称安排，以评估其对次优选择的影响。我们还检查了被归类为符号跟踪器的大鼠是否更受这种不对称排列的影响。结果表明，具有更高激励显着性的替代方案吸引了更多的偏好，并且这种效果对于符号跟踪受试者更强。