Collier, G., Johnson, D. F., & Berman, J. (1998).
Patch choice as a function of procurement cost and encounter rate.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
69, 5-16.
The effects of patch encounter rate on patch choice and meal
patterns were studied in rats foraging in a laboratory
environment offering two patch types that were encountered
sequentially and randomly. The cost of procuring access to one
patch was greater than the other. Patches were either encountered
equally often or the high-cost patch was encountered more
frequently. As expected, rats exploited the low-cost patch on
almost 100% of encounters and exploited the high-cost patch on a
percentage of encounters that was inversely proportional to its
cost. Meal size was the same at both patches. Surprisingly, when
low-cost patches were rare, the rats did not increase their use
of high-cost patches. This resulted in spending more time and
energy searching for patches and a higher average cost per meal.
The rats responded to this increased cost by reducing the
frequency and increasing the size of meals at both patches and
thereby limited total daily foraging cost and conserved total
intake.
Key words: foraging, patch choice, bar press, procurement cost,
meal patterns, food intake, rat