Abstract
In 1961, Herrnstein [4] famously observed that many animals match the frequency of their response to different stimuli in proportion to the reinforcement obtained from each stimulus type. Since then, a great deal of research has attempted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this “matching law”, so far without a clear consensus emerging. Here, we take the view that “choice behaviour” is a product of agent, environment, and observer, and that “mechanisms of choice” are therefore not to be located solely within the chooser. A simple model, employing the novel methodology of evolving choice behaviour in a multi-agent system, is used to demonstrate that matching behaviour can occur (in stable environments) without any dedicated choice mechanism.
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Seth, A.K. (1999). Evolving Behavioural Choice: An Investigation into Herrnstein’s Matching Law. In: Floreano, D., Nicoud, JD., Mondada, F. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1674. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48304-7_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48304-7_29
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