Environmental dynamics impact whether matching is optimal.

ABSTRACT: Foraging animals often sample options that yield rewards with different probabilities. In such scenarios, many animals exhibit "matching," whereby they allocate their choices such that the fraction of rewarded samples is equal across options. While matching can be optimal in environments with diminishing returns, this condition alone is not sufficient to determine optimality. Moreover, diminishing returns arise when resources deplete and replenish over time, but their form depends on the temporal structure and statistics of replenishment. Here, we investigate how these environmental properties influence whether matching is optimal. We consider an agent that samples options at fixed rates, and we derive the resulting reward probabilities across different types of environments. This allows u

SUBMITTER: Guo Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12767605 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature