Animal Anticipation: A Perspective

Abstract

Ruud van den Bos Abstract Anticipatory behavior may be defined as behavior expressed in the " here and now " based upon expected events in the near future and information processed in the past. Hence, it suggests an element of awareness of past, present, and future on behalf of the subject. In this chapter I discuss two examples of animal behavior, which at first sight may equally qualify as anticipatory behavior: migrating south in the fall to survive harsh winter conditions and deciding to continue or stop foraging behavior in face of a potential threat, such as indicated by smells (or other signals) of a predator. I show that in many animal species, awareness is present, a global working space, allowing the animal to adjust behavior when stimuli have changed their value; the latter implies some idea of the notion of the future. In addition, I discuss that only the foraging-predator threat case may be labeled as anticipatory behavior in the sense of containing an element of awareness of past, present, and future. This is framed in the wider context of decision-making.