Motivation and decision making

Motivation and decision making

Different motivations can strongly affect decision making

What can affect motivation

Motivation fluctuates through time and life history stages

• Hormones

• Age

• Biological sex

• Time of day

• Season

• Climate

Homeostasis

• The maintenance of a stable state of internal physical and chemical conditions within narrow optimal ranges by living organisms

• Involves many things, including: o Blood pH o Core temperature o Blood glucose and oxygen levels

How is homeostasis maintained?

• Homeostasis maintains stability through negative feedback

• The behavioural response is reactive – it occurs as a reaction to a deviation from homeostasis

Allostasis

• Stability through change

• Process by which animals actively adjust their internal state to meet predictable and unpredictable demands

• Allostatic parameters allows for dynamic shifts in parameters to match needs to eventually return to homeostasis

• Examples of allostastic adjustments:

  • The increase in heart rate and blood pressure during physical activity

  • Elevation glucocorticoids before a breeding season

• Why this matters in the context of motivation: not every rise in a hormone or a drive reflects a deficit being corrected — some reflect anticipation of a demand

Allostasis and motivation

STABLE STATE vs ADAPATBILITY

• Homeostasis: Fixed set points within a narrow range

• Allostasis: Dynamic set points that can adapt to changing demands

• Allostatic responses can be predictive, i.e. changes occur before deviation from a set point occurs

• Example: You watch a movie and anticipate that a scene will be scary – your pulse goes up

Allostatic load

• The cumulative cost to the body of allostasis

• All animals experience acute daily and seasonal stressors that they need to cope with. However, when stressors are repeated too often, there can be “wear and tear” across multiple somatic systems, which can lead to chronic stress

  • Can lead to an altered set point

Measuring motivation

• The cost and animals is able to pay to gain access to a resource can tell us about its motivation for this specific resource

  • Preference tests with costs

    • Can measure:

      • How flexible the animal is in its motivation for this resource

      • Resource value

      • Maximum cost paid to get to the resource

Displacement activities

• A normal behavioural pattern that appears out of its usual context

• Expressed when motivations compete, or a motivated act is hindered

• Ex: redirected behaviour, intention movements & ambivalence

Redirected behaviour

The correct behaviour is directed at the wrong object

Intention movements

Suboptimal or fractions of the correct behaviour

Ambivalence

Combination of intention movements from both conflicting motivational systems (e.g. approach and retreat)

Stereotypic behaviour

Repetitive, functionless and often damaging behavioural pattern

• Stereotypic behaviour is most often a response to chronic stress, frustration or an inability to continued perform natural behaviours

• Stereotypic behaviour is not necessarily a displacement activity but a repeated state of motivational conflict can lead to the development of stereotypic behaviours as a coping mechanism

• Even if an animal is taken out of the situation in which it is not thriving the stereotypic behaviour often persists

Judgement vs decision making

Early decisions can modify subsequent judgments, which in turn can modify subsequent decisions

How to differentiate between lack of judgement and decision not to act in a behaviour study?

Potential solution – add additional measures to your set up:

• Physiology

• Neurology

• More behaviours

State-dependent decision making

• Energy reserves affect the decisions made by educated predators foraging on defended prey

• Higher motivation leads to more risk taking

Aposematism

An advertising defence strategy where an animal uses bright colours, bold patterns, distinctive sounds, or strong smells to warn predators that it’s toxic, venomous, or tastes bad

Designing a study with motivation in mind

• Separate motivational strength from loaded or andromorphic terms

  • “worked hard for it” is not the same as motivation

• Control for and report deprivation/energy state before testing

  • it confounds tests involving food

• Some animals are just less food motivated

  • will this influence your test?

• Watch for general activity and arousal masquerading as a specific motivational or decision effect

  • Is your focal animal affected by the test situation itself? Something secondary in its environment? Or internally not related to your research question?

• Watch for displacement activities being mistaken for the trait you are actually measuring