Foraging across the life span: is there a reduction in exploration with aging?

doi:10.3389/FNINS.2013.00053

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Foraging across the life span: is there a reduction in exploration with aging?

Journal Article•DOI•

Foraging across the life span: is there a reduction in exploration with aging?

Rui Mata¹, Andreas Wilke², Uwe Czienskowski¹•Institutions (2)

Max Planck Society¹, Clarkson University²

17 Apr 2013-Frontiers in Neuroscience (Frontiers)-Vol. 7, pp 53-53

TL;DR: Overall, the evidence suggests that foraging behavior may undergo significant changes across the life span across internal and external search, and finds evidence of a trend toward reduced exploration with increased age.

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Abstract: Does foraging change across the life span, and in particular, with aging? We report data from two foraging tasks used to investigate age differences in search in external environments as well as internal search in memory. Overall, the evidence suggests that foraging behavior may undergo significant changes across the life span across internal and external search. In particular, we find evidence of a trend towards reduced exploration with increased age. We discuss these findings in light of theories that postulate a link between aging and reductions in novelty seeking and exploratory behavior.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Unpacking the exploration–exploitation tradeoff: A synthesis of human and animal literatures.

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Sabine Mehlhorn, Ben R. Newell¹, Peter M. Todd², Michael D. Lee³, Kate Morgan⁴, Victoria A. Braithwaite⁵, Daniel Hausmann⁶, Klaus Fiedler⁷, Cleotilde Gonzalez⁸ - Show less +5 more•Institutions (8)

University of New South Wales¹, Indiana University², University of California, Irvine³, University of St Andrews⁴, Pennsylvania State University⁵, Information Technology University⁶, Heidelberg University⁷, Carnegie Mellon University⁸

01 Jul 2015

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how potential tradeoffs depend on the conceptualization of exploration and exploitation, the influencing environmental, social, and individual factors, the scale at which exploration and exploit are considered, the relationship and types of transitions between the two behaviors, and the goals of the decision maker.

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Abstract: Many decisions in the lives of animals and humans require a fine balance between the exploration of different options and the exploitation of their rewards. Do you buy the advertised car, or do you test drive different models? Do you continue feeding from the current patch of flowers, or do you fly off to another one? Do you marry your current partner, or try your luck with someone else? The balance required in these situations is commonly referred to as the exploration– exploitation tradeoff. It features prominently in a wide range of research traditions, including learning, foraging, and decision making literatures. Here, we integrate findings from these and other often-isolated literatures in order to gain a better understand- ing of the possible tradeoffs between exploration and exploitation, and we propose new theoretical insights that might guide future research. Specifically, we explore how potential tradeoffs depend on (a) the conceptualization of exploration and exploitation; (b) the influencing environmental, social, and individual factors; (c) the scale at which exploration and exploitation are considered; (d) the relationship and types of transitions between the 2 behaviors; and (e) the goals of the decision maker. We conclude that exploration and exploitation are best conceptualized as points on a continuum, and that the extent to which an agent’s behavior can be interpreted as exploratory or exploitative depends upon the level of abstraction at which it is considered.

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234 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Frontiers in neuroscience

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Daniel E. Koshland

04 Nov 1988-Science

221 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The Affective Neuroscience of Aging.

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Mara Mather¹•Institutions (1)

University of Southern California¹

04 Jan 2016-Annual Review of Psychology

TL;DR: This review examines how age-related brain changes influence processes such as attending to and remembering emotional stimuli, regulating emotion, and recognizing emotional expressions, as well as empathy, risk taking, impulsivity, behavior change, and attentional focus.

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Abstract: Although aging is associated with clear declines in physical and cognitive processes, emotional functioning fares relatively well. Consistent with this behavioral profile, two core emotional brain regions, the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, show little structural and functional decline in aging, compared with other regions. However, emotional processes depend on interacting systems of neurotransmitters and brain regions that go beyond these structures. This review examines how age-related brain changes influence processes such as attending to and remembering emotional stimuli, regulating emotion, and recognizing emotional expressions, as well as empathy, risk taking, impulsivity, behavior change, and attentional focus.

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208 citations

Cites result from "Foraging across the life span: is t..."

...Not much is known yet about how age-related changes in the LC-noradrenaline system might relate to the likelihood of exploring new options versus remaining fixated on current choices, but it is an interesting avenue for future research, especially given findings of less exploratory behavior (Mata et al. 2013) and less information seeking during decision making (Mather 2006) among older than younger adults....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Learning about aposematic prey

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John Skelhorn¹, Christina G. Halpin¹, Candy Rowe¹•Institutions (1)

Newcastle University¹

01 Jul 2016-Behavioral Ecology

TL;DR: The aim of the review is to promote the view that predators do not simply learn to avoid aposematic prey, but rather make adaptive decisions about both when to gather information about defended prey and when to include them in their diets.

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Abstract: The question, "Why should prey advertise their presence to predators using warning coloration?" has been asked for over 150 years. It is now widely acknowledged that defended prey use conspicuous or distinctive colors to advertise their toxicity to would-be predators: a defensive strategy known as aposematism. One of the main approaches to understanding the ecology and evolution of aposematism and mimicry (where species share the same color pattern) has been to study how naive predators learn to associate prey’s visual signals with the noxious effects of their toxins. However, learning to associate a warning signal with a defense is only one aspect of what predators need to do to enable them to make adaptive foraging decisions when faced with aposematic prey and their mimics. The aim of our review is to promote the view that predators do not simply learn to avoid aposematic prey, but rather make adaptive decisions about both when to gather information about defended prey and when to include them in their diets. In doing so, we reveal what surprisingly little we know about what predators learn about aposematic prey and how they use that information when foraging. We highlight how a better understanding of predator cognition could advance theoretical and empirical work in the field.

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107 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

A Primer on Foraging and the Explore/Exploit Trade-Off for Psychiatry Research

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Merideth A. Addicott¹, John M. Pearson¹, Maggie M. Sweitzer¹, David L. Barack², Michael L. Platt³ - Show less +1 more•Institutions (3)

Duke University¹, Columbia University², University of Pennsylvania³

29 May 2017-Neuropsychopharmacology

TL;DR: The explore/exploit trade-off has been studied extensively in behavioral ecology and computational neuroscience, but is relatively new to the field of psychiatry as discussed by the authors, which can offer psychiatry research a new approach to studying motivation, outcome valuation, and effort-related processes which are disrupted in many mental and emotional disorders.

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102 citations

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Journal Article•

Neural mechanisms for foraging

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Matthew F. S. Rushworth

01 Jan 2013-Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that humans can alternate between two modes of choice, comparative decision-making and foraging, depending on distinct neural mechanisms in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) using distinct reference frames.

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439 citations

"Foraging across the life span: is t..." refers background in this paper

...…interest and progress of late in understanding the cognitive and neural basis of foraging www.frontiersin.org April 2013 | Volume 7 | Article 53 | 1 decisions (Pirolli and Card, 1999; Cohen et al., 2007; Payne et al., 2007; Hills et al., 2010, 2012; Hayden et al., 2011; Kolling et al., 2012)....
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...For example, prefrontal brain areas underlying explorationexploitation decisions during foraging (Daw et al., 2006; Hayden et al., 2011; Kolling et al., 2012) are particularly affected by aging (West, 1996)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Neuronal basis of sequential foraging decisions in a patchy environment

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Benjamin Y. Hayden¹, John M. Pearson¹, Michael L. Platt¹•Institutions (1)

Duke University¹

01 Jul 2011-Nature Neuroscience

TL;DR: It is found that neurons in primate dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, an area that is linked to reward monitoring and executive control, encode a decision variable signaling the relative value of leaving a depleting resource for a new one.

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Abstract: Deciding when to leave a depleting resource to exploit another is a fundamental problem for all decision makers. The neuronal mechanisms mediating patch-leaving decisions remain unknown. We found that neurons in primate (Macaca mulatta) dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, an area that is linked to reward monitoring and executive control, encode a decision variable signaling the relative value of leaving a depleting resource for a new one. Neurons fired during each sequential decision to stay in a patch and, for each travel time, these responses reached a fixed threshold for patch-leaving. Longer travel times reduced the gain of neural responses for choosing to stay in a patch and increased the firing rate threshold mandating patch-leaving. These modulations more closely matched behavioral decisions than any single task variable. These findings portend an understanding of the neural basis of foraging decisions and endorse the unification of theoretical and experimental work in ecology and neuroscience.

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414 citations

"Foraging across the life span: is t..." refers background in this paper

...…interest and progress of late in understanding the cognitive and neural basis of foraging www.frontiersin.org April 2013 | Volume 7 | Article 53 | 1 decisions (Pirolli and Card, 1999; Cohen et al., 2007; Payne et al., 2007; Hills et al., 2010, 2012; Hayden et al., 2011; Kolling et al., 2012)....
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...Third, there is evidence for domain-general neural mechanisms underlying search processes that are likely shared by different species (Daw et al., 2006; Hills, 2006; Cohen et al., 2007; Hayden et al., 2011)....
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...For example, prefrontal brain areas underlying explorationexploitation decisions during foraging (Daw et al., 2006; Hayden et al., 2011; Kolling et al., 2012) are particularly affected by aging (West, 1996)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The aging brain: morphomolecular senescence of cortical circuits

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Patrick R. Hof¹, John H. Morrison¹•Institutions (1)

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai¹

01 Oct 2004-Trends in Neurosciences

TL;DR: Animal studies suggest that both AD and age-associated cognitive impairment reflect vulnerability of the same circuits, however, neuron death predominates in the former, whereas the latter is probably mediated by synaptic alterations in otherwise intact circuits.

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402 citations

"Foraging across the life span: is t..." refers background in this paper

...But how do such systems that likely underlie foraging processes change as a function of aging? There is evidence for considerable age-related cognitive decline in primates due to structural and functional brain changes (Arnsten and Goldman Rakic, 1985; Hof and Morrison, 2004)....
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...There is evidence for considerable age-related cognitive decline in primates due to structural and functional brain changes (Arnsten and Goldman Rakic, 1985; Hof and Morrison, 2004)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Age differences in risky choice: a meta-analysis

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Rui Mata¹, Anika K. Josef¹, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin², Ralph Hertwig¹•Institutions (2)

University of Basel¹, Vanderbilt University²

01 Oct 2011-Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

TL;DR: The authors found that age-related differences in risk taking were a function of decreased learning performance: older adults were more risk seeking compared to younger adults when learning led to risk-avoidant behavior, but were risk averse when learning resulted in risk-seeking behavior.

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Abstract: vs. losses). The results suggest that age-related differences vary considerably as a function of task characteristics, in particular the learning requirements of the task. In decisions from experience, age-related differences in risk taking were a function of decreased learning performance: older adults were more risk seeking compared to younger adults when learning led to risk-avoidant behavior, but were more risk averse when learning led to risk-seeking behavior. In decisions from description, younger adults and older adults showed similar risk-taking behavior for the majority of the tasks, and there were no clear age-related differences as a function of gain/loss framing. We discuss limitations and strengths of past research and provide suggestions for future work on age-related differences in risk taking.

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337 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Optimal foraging in semantic memory

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Thomas T. Hills¹, Michael N. Jones², Peter M. Todd²•Institutions (2)

University of Warwick¹, Indiana University²

13 Feb 2012-Psychological Review

TL;DR: Evidence for local structure in memory search and patch depletion preceding dynamic local-to-global transitions between patches is found, and dynamic models significantly outperformed nondynamic models.

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Abstract: Do humans search in memory using dynamic local-to-global search strategies similar to those that animals use to forage between patches in space? If so, do their dynamic memory search policies correspond to optimal foraging strategies seen for spatial foraging? Results from a number of fields suggest these possibilities, including the shared structure of the search problems-searching in patchy environments-and recent evidence supporting a domain-general cognitive search process. To investigate these questions directly, we asked participants to recover from memory as many animal names as they could in 3 min. Memory search was modeled over a representation of the semantic search space generated from the BEAGLE memory model of Jones and Mewhort (2007), via a search process similar to models of associative memory search (e.g., Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1981). We found evidence for local structure (i.e., patches) in memory search and patch depletion preceding dynamic local-to-global transitions between patches. Dynamic models also significantly outperformed nondynamic models. The timing of dynamic local-to-global transitions was consistent with optimal search policies in space, specifically the marginal value theorem (Charnov, 1976), and participants who were more consistent with this policy recalled more items.

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280 citations

"Foraging across the life span: is t..." refers background in this paper

..., 2006), or, alternatively, abstract ones such as information in the external world (Pirolli and Card, 1999), or memory (Hills et al., 2012)....
[...]
...…interest and progress of late in understanding the cognitive and neural basis of foraging www.frontiersin.org April 2013 | Volume 7 | Article 53 | 1 decisions (Pirolli and Card, 1999; Cohen et al., 2007; Payne et al., 2007; Hills et al., 2010, 2012; Hayden et al., 2011; Kolling et al., 2012)....
[...]
...…between exploration and exploitation (Stephens, 2008) and one that spans many domains, including the search for tangible resources such as food (Gurven et al., 2006), or, alternatively, abstract ones such as information in the external world (Pirolli and Card, 1999), or memory (Hills et al., 2012)....
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...…could further elucidate the generality of foraging mechanisms would be to test for differential aging effects on exploration in different domains, such as visual search (Cain et al., 2012), search in space (Hills et al., 2010), memory (Hills et al., 2012), or information (Pirolli and Card, 1999)....
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