2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Leap before you look: Choice of impulsive strategies for reward maximisation
| Project/Area Number |
20K20142
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| Research Institution | Chiba University |
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Principal Investigator |
渡辺 安里依 千葉大学, 大学院人文科学研究院, 准教授 (90738949)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | comparative cognition / metacognition |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The main objective of the current project is to create an animal model of impulsivity by identifying factors and contexts responsible for impulsive behaviours. More specifically, the project aims to investigate whether there is a difference in frequency of exhibited impulsive choice in tasks that vary in nature and difficulty. Furthermore, between-species comparison will be made with pigeons and domestic cats to identify genetic and environmental factors that influence impulsivity.
The second year of the project mainly focused on three pigeon studies. The first study was an extension to the work started last year on pigeons' attention to moving targets. The results from this study was presented at a national conference in autumn 2021.
The second study investigated metacognition while enabling adjustments for individual behavioural tendencies. The results supported our hypothesis that impulsive species, such as pigeons, do not show metacognitive behaviours even when the cost of that response is minimised. Furthermore, the results suggested that their responses were based on the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli used in the task. This possibility will be investigated further in the following year by conducting a different variation of the task.
The second pigeon experiment focused on source memory and exploring effective memory tests to study it. Consistent with previous research, the pigeons had difficulty in solving tasks involving the same-different concept but were successful in learning the task using limited stimulus set size.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The two pigeon studies on metacognition and source memory were completed as originally planned. Their results also opened up new possibilities for follow-up experiments to further investigate pigeon cognition.
In addition, new studies on human impulsivity and cats' spatial attention are under way. The first experiment for both of these studies are nearly completed and we plan to continue with the second experiment in the following year. Subject recruitment of pet cats has been relatively successful so far in despite of the COVID-19 situation.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As well as continuing with the pigeon work on metacognition and attention, the third year of the project will focus on human and cat cognition to enable between-species comparison. In both studies, impulsivity or individual traits are measured and compared with performance on spatial tasks. In humans, both tests will be presented as behavioural tasks with minimal verbal instruction so that the results can be directly compared to the previously collected pigeon data. For cats, their personality will be assessed by their owners and their spatial ability is assessed using a physical cognition task involving tubes and falling objects.
The data from the above and other studies will be analysed in preparation for presenting them in conferences and as journal submissions.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The amount of expenditure for the fiscal year concerned is about the same as the amount received. Unused amount is from the first year of the project when the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was serious and this will be used for transport fees to visit distant participants and attend conferences next year.
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