Paradoxical choice and the reinforcing value of information.

ABSTRACT: Signals that reduce uncertainty can be valuable because well-informed decision-makers can better align their preferences to opportunities. However, some birds and mammals display an appetite for informative signals that cannot be used to increase returns. We explore the role that reward-predictive stimuli have in fostering such preferences, aiming at distinguishing between two putative underlying mechanisms. The 'information hypothesis' proposes that reducing uncertainty is reinforcing per se, somewhat consistently with the concept of curiosity: a motivation to know in the absence of tractable extrinsic benefits. In contrast, the 'conditioned reinforcement hypothesis', an associative account, proposes asymmetries in secondarily acquired reinforcement: post-choice stimuli announcing forthco

SUBMITTER: Ajuwon V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9950180 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature