Sometimes, we must choose between obtaining an immediate reward or foregoing it in favor of searching for a better reward elsewhere. Such decisions have been characterized as involving exploration-exploitation trade-offs. Here, we studied the reliability and basis of individual differences in tasks involving choices between exploration and exploitation. In Studies 1, 2, and 4, we found little evidence for a stable individual difference in tendency to explore (vs. exploit). Additionally, we tested delay discounting as a potential predictor of individual differences in exploration. In Studies 3 and 4, we found that delay discounting was inconsistently predictive of exploration behavior. Our results support the claim that people adapt their exploration behavior to the environment in which they find themselves. This adaptation overrides any general preference to explore environments more or less than other people. Our results also suggest that predictors of exploration may be exclusively restricted to the particular environment in which they were observed. Implications for past and future research of exploration-exploitation decision making are discussed.

中文翻译：

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探索与利用的个体差异以及延迟贴现的联系

有时，我们必须在获得直接奖励或放弃它以在别处寻找更好的奖励之间做出选择。此类决定的特点是涉及勘探与开发的权衡。在这里，我们研究了涉及探索和开发之间选择的任务中个体差异的可靠性和基础。在研究 1、2 和 4 中，我们几乎没有发现探索倾向（与剥削倾向）存在稳定的个体差异的证据。此外，我们测试了延迟贴现作为探索个体差异的潜在预测指标。在研究 3 和 4 中，我们发现延迟折扣对探索行为的预测不一致。我们的结果支持人们根据他们所处的环境调整他们的探索行为的说法。这种适应超越了任何比其他人更多或更少探索环境的普遍偏好。我们的结果还表明，探索的预测因素可能仅限于观察到的特定环境。讨论了勘探开发决策的过去和未来研究的意义。