Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 78, Issue 4, Pages 819-828Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.06.014
Keywords
caching; cognition; precision; spatial memory; uncertainty
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Funding
- Norwegian Research Council
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The problem of when an action should be abandoned because it is not worth further effort occurs in many situations. In the spatial domain, the relevant information can be quantified. Two essential pieces of information are the precision with which the target location and the probability of the target being present are known. We offer a quantitative description of optimal solutions to cache retrieval, treating it as a 2D investment problem with search cost proportional to area. We estimated the value of knowing the precision of spatial information and the precision of information regarding probability: how precisely should you estimate the precision of your knowledge? We compared the expected gain from assessing the precision of spatial knowledge and probability with the expected gain from decisions based on aggregate knowledge of the distribution of precision and probability. We found that heuristics, represented here as default search limits based on aggregate knowledge, are useful only under limited conditions. (C) 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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