Meal patterns of cats encountering variable food procurement cost

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
G CollierC Morgan

Abstract

The meal patterns of 2 cats in a laboratory habitat with variable foraging costs were examined in a foraging paradigm in which subjects could initiate meals at any time by completing a predetermined number of bar presses (the procurement price) and then could eat any amount. From meal to meal, the procurement price either was fixed or varied among a geometric series of five prices. As the fixed price or the mean of the variable prices increased, meal frequency decreased and meal size increased; daily intake was unaffected. Within variable-price schedules, meal size was not related to the just-paid procurement price. These results suggest that cats respond to the global rather than to the local cost structure of their habitat. They appear to respond to an average of the prices encountered, initiating meals of a frequency and size appropriate to that average. This was true even when the average price was high, meals were infrequent, and thus price encounters were widely separated in time. Therefore, the time window over which the consequences of behavior can affect behavior is longer than often conceived, at least in economies in which the animal controls its intake and the frequency, size, and distribution of its meals.

References

May 1, 1992·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·H Rachlin
Nov 1, 1988·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·W TimberlakeG A Lucas
Jul 1, 1987·Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes·W TimberlakeG A Lucas
Sep 1, 1986·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·G H CollierL W Kaufman
May 1, 1995·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·C E MathisG H Collier

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Citations

Oct 21, 2015·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Christelle TobieClaire Larose
Jun 3, 2008·The European Journal of Neuroscience·Nicole R Richardson, Alain Gratton
Jul 27, 2021·Animal Cognition·Mikel M DelgadoMelissa J Bain
Sep 7, 2021·Physiological Reviews·Alan G WattsWolfgang Langhans

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