| Abstract: | Foraging has become a popular catchword in literature like that published in this Journal. Several different kinds of psychological research on foraging can be distinguished. These include tests of optimal foraging models using operant schedules and other simulations, analyses of the mechanisms assumed as constraints in optimality models, tests of the optimality of behavior on arbitrary schedules, and use of seminaturalistic laboratory situations. This kind of work is not without problems. One is that the gap between "real" and simulated foraging has been insufficiently explored. More important, accounts of behavior in terms of function (e.g., optimal foraging theory) are often confused with those in terms of mechanisms of learning, memory, and choice. The most productive research strategy in this area is to juxtapose predictions of functional and mechanistic models and attempt to understand any differences between them. Studies of foraging behavior can also reveal new or poorly studied phenomena. Because optimal foraging theory makes ideas about function explicit and precise, well-formulated investigations of foraging behavior can contribute substantially to understanding learning, memory, and decision processes as biological adaptations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
