The exploration-exploitation trade-off shows conceptual, functional, and neural analogies with the persistence-flexibility trade-off. We investigated whether mood, which is known to modulate the persistence-flexibility balance, would similarly affect the exploration-exploitation trade-off in a foraging task. More specifically, we tested whether interindividual differences in foraging behavior can be predicted by mood-related arousal and valence. In 119 participants, we assessed mood-related interindividual differences in exploration-exploitation using a foraging task that included minimal task constraints to reduce paradigm-induced biases of individual control tendencies. We adopted the marginal value theorem as a model-based analysis approach, which approximates optimal foraging behavior by tackling the patch-leaving problem. To assess influences of mood on foraging, participants underwent either a positive or negative mood induction. Throughout the experiment, we assessed arousal and valence levels as predictors for explorative/exploitative behavior. Our mood manipulation affected participants' arousal and valence ratings as expected. Moreover, mood-related arousal was found to predict exploration while valence predicted exploitation, which only partly matched our expectations and thereby the proposed conceptual overlap with flexibility and persistence, respectively. The current study provides a first insight into how processes related to arousal and valence differentially modulate foraging behavior. Our results imply that the relationship between exploration-exploitation and flexibility-persistence is more complicated than the semantic overlap between these terms might suggest, thereby calling for further research on the functional, neural, and neurochemical underpinnings of both trade-offs.

探索-利用权衡显示了与持久性-灵活性权衡的概念、功能和神经类比。我们调查了已知调节持久性-灵活性平衡的情绪是否会同样影响觅食任务中的探索-利用权衡。更具体地说，我们测试了觅食行为的个体差异是否可以通过情绪相关的唤醒和效价来预测。在 119 名参与者中，我们使用觅食任务评估了探索开发中与情绪相关的个体间差异，该任务包括最小的任务限制以减少个体控制倾向的范式引起的偏差。我们采用边际值定理作为基于模型的分析方法，通过解决斑块离开问题来近似最优觅食行为。为了评估情绪对觅食的影响，参与者接受了积极或消极的情绪诱导。在整个实验中，我们评估了唤醒和效价水平作为探索/剥削行为的预测指标。正如预期的那样，我们的情绪操纵影响了参与者的唤醒和效价评级。此外，发现与情绪相关的唤醒可以预测探索，而效价可以预测剥削，这仅部分符合我们的预期，因此所提出的概念分别与灵活性和持久性重叠。目前的研究提供了关于与唤醒和价态相关的过程如何差异调节觅食行为的初步见解。