Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gambling-Like Behavior In Pigeons: 'Jackpot' Signals Promote Maladaptive Risky Choice, Aaron P. Smith, Joshua S. Beckmann, Thomas R. Zentall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Individuals often face choices that have uncertain outcomes and have important consequences. As a model of this environment, laboratory experiments often offer a choice between an uncertain, large reward that varies in its probability of delivery against a certain but smaller reward as a measure of an individual’s risk aversion. An important factor generally lacking from these procedures are gambling related cues that may moderate risk preferences. The present experiment offered pigeons choices between unreliable and certain rewards but, for the Signaled group on winning choices, presented a ‘jackpot’ signal prior to reward delivery. The Unsignaled group received an ambiguous …