A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns.
Resources are often distributed in clumps or patches in space, unless an agent is trying to protect them from discovery and theft using a dispersed distribution. We uncover human expectations of such spatial resource patterns in collaborative and competitive settings via a sequential multi-person ga...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4495993?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1811293007603826688 |
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| author | Andreas Wilke Steven Minich Megane Panis Tom A Langen Joseph D Skufca Peter M Todd |
| author_facet | Andreas Wilke Steven Minich Megane Panis Tom A Langen Joseph D Skufca Peter M Todd |
| author_sort | Andreas Wilke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Resources are often distributed in clumps or patches in space, unless an agent is trying to protect them from discovery and theft using a dispersed distribution. We uncover human expectations of such spatial resource patterns in collaborative and competitive settings via a sequential multi-person game in which participants hid resources for the next participant to seek. When collaborating, resources were mostly hidden in clumpy distributions, but when competing, resources were hidden in more dispersed (random or hyperdispersed) patterns to increase the searching difficulty for the other player. More dispersed resource distributions came at the cost of higher overall hiding (as well as searching) times, decreased payoffs, and an increased difficulty when the hider had to recall earlier hiding locations at the end of the experiment. Participants' search strategies were also affected by their underlying expectations, using a win-stay lose-shift strategy appropriate for clumpy resources when searching for collaboratively-hidden items, but moving equally far after finding or not finding an item in competitive settings, as appropriate for dispersed resources. Thus participants showed expectations for clumpy versus dispersed spatial resources that matched the distributions commonly found in collaborative versus competitive foraging settings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T04:54:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-11ca83a4446e470a9b3fc0b2ce862529 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T04:54:59Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-11ca83a4446e470a9b3fc0b2ce8625292022-12-22T03:01:32ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01107e013097610.1371/journal.pone.0130976A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns.Andreas WilkeSteven MinichMegane PanisTom A LangenJoseph D SkufcaPeter M ToddResources are often distributed in clumps or patches in space, unless an agent is trying to protect them from discovery and theft using a dispersed distribution. We uncover human expectations of such spatial resource patterns in collaborative and competitive settings via a sequential multi-person game in which participants hid resources for the next participant to seek. When collaborating, resources were mostly hidden in clumpy distributions, but when competing, resources were hidden in more dispersed (random or hyperdispersed) patterns to increase the searching difficulty for the other player. More dispersed resource distributions came at the cost of higher overall hiding (as well as searching) times, decreased payoffs, and an increased difficulty when the hider had to recall earlier hiding locations at the end of the experiment. Participants' search strategies were also affected by their underlying expectations, using a win-stay lose-shift strategy appropriate for clumpy resources when searching for collaboratively-hidden items, but moving equally far after finding or not finding an item in competitive settings, as appropriate for dispersed resources. Thus participants showed expectations for clumpy versus dispersed spatial resources that matched the distributions commonly found in collaborative versus competitive foraging settings.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4495993?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Andreas Wilke Steven Minich Megane Panis Tom A Langen Joseph D Skufca Peter M Todd A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. PLoS ONE |
| title | A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. |
| title_full | A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. |
| title_fullStr | A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. |
| title_short | A Game of Hide and Seek: Expectations of Clumpy Resources Influence Hiding and Searching Patterns. |
| title_sort | game of hide and seek expectations of clumpy resources influence hiding and searching patterns |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4495993?pdf=render |
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