Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36306041›Full record

ArticleAnimal cognition2023

Paradoxical choice and the reinforcing value of information.

Victor Ajuwon, Andrés Ojeda, Robin A Murphy, Tiago Monteiro, Alex Kacelnik

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Animal cognition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Do goldfish like to be informed?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Temporal context effects on suboptimal choice.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024
    Article
  9. Probing Perceptual Uncertainty to Examine the Relationship between Curiosity and Confidence.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024
    Review
  15. Inhibition and paradoxical choice.Learning & behavior · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Victor AjuwonDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. victor.ajuwon@biology.ox.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5116-641X
Andrés OjedaDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Robin A MurphyDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Tiago MonteiroDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Alex KacelnikDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. alex.kacelnik@biology.ox.ac.uk.

Funding

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BB/M011224/1Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (390523135)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Signals that reduce uncertainty can be valuable because well-informed decision-makers can better align their preferences to opportunities. However, some birds and mammals display an appetite for informative signals that cannot be used to increase returns. We explore the role that reward-predictive stimuli have in fostering such preferences, aiming at distinguishing between two putative underlying mechanisms. The 'information hypothesis' proposes that reducing uncertainty is reinforcing per se, somewhat consistently with the concept of curiosity: a motivation to know in the absence of tractable extrinsic benefits. In contrast, the 'conditioned reinforcement hypothesis', an associative account, proposes asymmetries in secondarily acquired reinforcement: post-choice stimuli announcing forthcoming rewards (S

Indexed as

Choice BehaviorConditioning, OperantAnimalsMammalsMotivationRatsReinforcement, PsychologyRewardConditioned reinforcementNon-instrumental informationParadoxical choiceRatStimulus salienceSuboptimal choice

Identifiers

PMID36306041
PMCPMC9950180

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.