patmod_title.jpg (9930 bytes)

 


eam_sm.gif (3526 bytes)

Exploring
the Animal Mind
Home Page


Enter your
comments
questions or
interest


Robert Cook's
Home Page


Modules

Pavlovian Conditioning

Human Contingency
Perception

Schedules of
Reinforcement

Concurrent Schedules

Conditional Discriminations

Spatial Memory

T- Maze Procedures

Prey Foraging Models

Patch Foraging Models


This module is designed to illustrate the patch problem in optimal foraging. Foraging involves two essential decisions. The first is whether to enter a patch in search of food, and the second is to judge how long to continue searching for food in that location. This module allows the student to essentially "forage" in various type of patches and monitor their own choice behavior.

To begin, you choose between two patches in which to forage. As in nature, once you choose one, you cannot get to the other without incurring some cost. The five squares between the patches represent this travel time, as each needs to be clicked in order to move to the next patch. Students can control the rate of reward within a patch, and its depletion rate.

patch.jpg (48818 bytes)