Evolving behavioural choice: An investigation into herrnstein’s matching law

Abstract

In 1961, Herrnstein [4] famously observed that many animals match the frequency of their response to different stimuli in proportion to the reinforcement obtained from each stimulus type. Since then, a great deal of research has attempted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this “matching law”, so far without a clear consensus emerging. Here, we take the view that “choice behaviour” is a product of agent, environment, and observer, and that “mechanisms of choice” are therefore not to be located solely within the chooser. A simple model, employing the novel methodology of evolving choice behaviour in a multi-agent system, is used to demonstrate that matching behaviour can occur (in stable environments) without any dedicated choice mechanism.