Random and Systematic Foraging, Experimental Studies of Depletion, and Schedules of Reinforcement

Abstract

To say that an organism moves about randomly in space is to say that it fails to discriminate one location from any other. If it moves about systematically, then it does discriminate one location from another. In general, if an organism behaves randomly with respect to some dimension of the environment, it fails to discriminate among situations that differ only in that dimension, and to the extent that it does discriminate, it behaves systematically. Discrimination usually saves time and energy, because discrimination usually means that effort is allocated predominantly to situations in which it is most likely to produce favorable results. To be systematic, therefore, is to be efficient.