A variety of animals sometimes engage in a form of maladaptive decision-making characterized by repeatedly choosing an option providing food-predictive stimuli even though they earn less food for doing so. The temporal information-theoretic model suggests that such suboptimal choice depends on competition between the bits of temporal information conveyed by food-predictive stimuli (which encourages suboptimal choice) and the rate of food delivery (which encourages optimal choice). The model assumes that competition between these two sources of control is based on the ratio of the delay to food (Df) and the delay to food-predictive stimuli (Ds) at the choice point (i.e., Df/Ds). Research with both rats and pigeons suggests that temporal information outcompetes the rate of food delivery, thereby generating suboptimal choice, when the delay to food (Df) is sufficiently long. Limited data with pigeons, and none with rats, suggests that the rate of food delivery outcompetes temporal information, thereby generating optimal choice, when the delay to food-predictive stimuli (Ds) is sufficiently long. The present experiment sought to clarify whether longer delays to food-predictive stimuli decrease suboptimal choice in rats. We found that while longer delays to food (Df) increased suboptimal choice in rats, longer delays to food-predictive stimuli (Ds) did not decrease suboptimal choice. These results suggest a potential difference between rats and pigeons in the manner in which food-predictive stimuli and food itself compete to control choice. In terms of the temporal information-theoretic model, competition between temporal information and the rate of food delivery in rats appears to be influenced only by the delay to food at the choice point. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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延迟食物预测刺激不会影响大鼠的次优选择。

各种动物有时会进行一种适应不良的决策，其特征是反复选择提供食物预测刺激的选项，即使它们因此获得的食物较少。时间信息理论模型表明，这种次优选择取决于食物预测刺激（鼓励次优选择）传达的时间信息位与送餐速度（鼓励最优选择）之间的竞争。该模型假设这两种控制源之间的竞争基于食物延迟 (Df) 和选择点处食物预测刺激 (Ds) 的延迟 (即 Df/Ds) 的比率。对老鼠和鸽子的研究表明，时间信息胜过送餐速度，从而产生次优选择，当食物延迟（Df）足够长时。鸽子的有限数据和大鼠的数据表明，当食物预测刺激 (Ds) 的延迟足够长时，食物传递的速度胜过时间信息，从而产生最佳选择。本实验试图澄清对食物预测刺激的较长延迟是否会减少大鼠的次优选择。我们发现，虽然较长时间延迟食物 (Df) 会增加大鼠的次优选择，但较长时间延迟食物预测刺激 (Ds) 并不会减少次优选择。这些结果表明大鼠和鸽子在食物预测刺激和食物本身竞争控制选择的方式上存在潜在差异。在时间信息理论模型方面，时间信息与大鼠食物递送速率之间的竞争似乎仅受选择点食物延迟的影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。