{"doi":"10.1101/497321","title":"Rats exhibit similar biases in foraging and intertemporal choice tasks","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Animals, including humans, consistently exhibit myopia in two different contexts: foraging, in which they harvest locally beyond what is predicted by optimal foraging theory, and intertemporal choice, in which they exhibit a preference for immediate vs. delayed rewards beyond what is predicted by rational (exponential) discounting. Despite the similarity in behavior between these two contexts, previous efforts to reconcile these observations in terms of a consistent pattern of time preferences have failed. Here, via extensive behavioral testing and quantitative modeling, we show that rats exhibit similar time preferences in both contexts: they prefer immediate vs. delayed rewards and they are sensitive to opportunity costs — delays to future decisions. Further, a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, a form of hyperbolic discounting with separate components for short-and long-term rewards, explains individual rats’ time preferences across both contexts, providing evidence for a common mechanism for myopic behavior in foraging and intertemporal choice.</jats:p>","journal":null,"year":null,"id":604181,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":269718,"name":"Aaron M. Bornstein","orcid":"0000-0001-6251-6000","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":636521,"name":"Amitai Shenhav","orcid":"0000-0002-0222-0774","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":23483,"name":"Robert C. Wilson","orcid":"0000-0002-2963-2971","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":447345,"name":"Nathaniel D. Daw","orcid":"0000-0001-5029-1430","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232162,"name":"Jonathan D. Cohen","orcid":"0000-0003-2316-0763","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":808847,"name":"Gary A. Kane","orcid":"0000-0002-7703-5055","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Rats exhibit similar biases in foraging and intertemporal choice tasks","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Animals, including humans, consistently exhibit myopia in two different contexts: foraging, in which they harvest locally beyond what is predicted by optimal foraging theory, and intertemporal choice, in which they exhibit a preference for immediate vs. delayed rewards beyond what is predicted by rational (exponential) discounting. Despite the similarity in behavior between these two contexts, previous efforts to reconcile these observations in terms of a consistent pattern of time preferences have failed. Here, via extensive behavioral testing and quantitative modeling, we show that rats exhibit similar time preferences in both contexts: they prefer immediate vs. delayed rewards and they are sensitive to opportunity costs — delays to future decisions. Further, a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, a form of hyperbolic discounting with separate components for short-and long-term rewards, explains individual rats’ time preferences across both contexts, providing evidence for a common mechanism for myopic behavior in foraging and intertemporal choice.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"23304386","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2904183852","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5F31MH109286-02","title":"The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Decision-Making Under Uncertainty"}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2019,"count":1},{"year":2021,"count":1},{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2024,"count":1}],"oa_status":"green","license":"cc-by-nc-nd","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/497321","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/497321","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1101/497321","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87p9k030","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.48429","host_type":""},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31532391","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.48429","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/dee3d2aed1234d7e89c8dd6d1324270c","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1101/497321","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.48429","host_type":""},{"url":"https://escholarship.org/content/qt87p9k030/qt87p9k030.pdf","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/497321","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.48429","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics","Behavioral Health and Interventions","Behavioral and Psychological Studies","0302 clinical medicine","03 medical and health sciences"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Foraging","Hyperbolic discounting","Intertemporal choice","Discounting","Preference","Time preference","Temporal discounting","Dynamic inconsistency","Econometrics","Economics","Optimal foraging theory","Term (time)","Microeconomics","Biology","Ecology","Feeding Behavior (mesh)","150","Decision Making (mesh)","Choice Behavior","Choice Behavior (mesh)","neuroscience","computational biology","Models","31 Biological sciences (for-2020)","Animals (mesh)","rat","Biology (General)","32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (for-2020)","42 Health Sciences (for-2020)","Humans (mesh)","Q","R","systems biology","Biological Sciences","Rats (mesh)","Medicine","Behavioral and Social Science (rcdc)","Computational and Systems Biology","330","QH301-705.5","Science","Decision Making","0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology (for)","Biological (mesh)","Basic Behavioral and Social Science","Models, Biological","Reward","Health Sciences","Behavioral and Social Science","Animals","Humans","Biomedical and Clinical Sciences","Feeding Behavior","Reward (mesh)","Biological","Rats","Biochemistry and Cell Biology","Basic Behavioral and Social Science (rcdc)"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":2,"sdg_label":"2. Zero hunger"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-29T23:29:40.315676Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}