Czaczkes, Tomer J. and Brandstetter, Birgit and di Stefano, Isabella and Heinze, Juergen (2018) Greater Effort Increases Perceived Value in an Invertebrate (Lasius niger). JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY, 132 (2). pp. 200-209. ISSN 0735-7036, 1939-2087
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Expending effort is generally considered to be undesirable. However, both humans and vertebrates will work for a reward they could also get for free. Moreover, cues associated with high-effort rewards are preferred to low-effort associated cues. Many explanations for these counterintuitive findings have been suggested, including cognitive dissonance (self-justification) or a greater contrast in state (e.g., energy or frustration level) before and after an effort-linked reward. Here, we test whether effort expenditure also increases perceived value in ants, using both classical cue-association methods and pheromone deposition, which correlates with perceived value. In 2 separate experimental setups, we show that pheromone deposition is higher toward the reward that requires more effort: 47% more pheromone deposition was performed for rewards reached via a vertical runway (high effort) compared with ones reached via a horizontal runway (low effort), and deposition rates were 28% higher on rough (high effort) versus smooth (low effort) runways. Using traditional cue-association methods, 63% of ants trained on different surface roughness, and 70% of ants trained on different runway elevations, preferred the high-effort related cues on a Y maze. Finally, pheromone deposition to feeders requiring memorization of one path bifurcation was up to 29% higher than to an identical feeder requiring no learning. Our results suggest that effort affects value perception in ants. This effect may stem from a cognitive process, which monitors the change in a generalized hedonic state before and after reward.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | WITHIN-TRIAL CONTRAST; DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI; TRAIL PHEROMONES; ANTS; FOOD; REINFORCEMENT; PREFERENCE; STARLINGS; PIGEONS; WORK; within-trial contrast; state-dependent learning; cognitive dissonance; effort justification; pheromone deposition |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Mar 2020 12:34 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Apr 2020 05:18 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/14659 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
