Pigeons and people select efficient routes when solving a one-way "traveling salesperson" task

Brett M Gibson; Edward A Wasserman; Alan C Kamil

doi:10.1037/0097-7403.33.3.244

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Pigeons and people select efficient routes when solving a one-way "traveling salesperson" task

Journal article

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Pigeons and people select efficient routes when solving a one-way "traveling salesperson" task

Brett M Gibson, Edward A Wasserman and Alan C Kamil

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, Vol.33(3), pp.244-261

07/2007

DOI: 10.1037/0097-7403.33.3.244

PMID: 17620024

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Abstract

The authors presented people (Experiment 1) and pigeons (Experiments 2 and 3) with a large number of 1-way traveling salesperson problems that consisted of 3, 4, and 5 identical stimuli (nodes) on a computer monitor. The sequence of nodes that each traveler selected was recorded, and the distance of the route was subsequently determined. The routes the pigeons and people selected were reliably more efficient than those used by a Monte Carlo model given the same problems. The pigeons' routes were significantly less efficient than a nearest neighbor model of performance, however. In Experiment 3, pigeons were required to select a route that was within the top 33% of all possible solutions for a given problem. The pigeons' solutions were significantly more efficient than those observed in Experiment 2, in which the behavioral criterion was not imposed. The mechanisms that pigeons and people may have been using to solve the traveling salesperson problems are discussed.

Choice Behavior

Species Specificity

Humans

Practice (Psychology)

Problem Solving

Orientation

Aptitude

Animals

Distance Perception

Computer Simulation

Adolescent

Adult

Conditioning, Operant

Female

Homing Behavior

Columbidae

Monte Carlo Method

Details

Title: Subtitle: Pigeons and people select efficient routes when solving a one-way "traveling salesperson" task
Creators: Brett M Gibson - Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824-3567, USA. bgibson@cisunix.unh.edu
Edward A Wasserman
Alan C Kamil
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, Vol.33(3), pp.244-261
DOI: 10.1037/0097-7403.33.3.244
PMID: 17620024
NLM abbreviation: J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process
ISSN: 0097-7403
eISSN: 1939-2184
Publisher: American Psychological Association; United States
Language: English
Date published: 07/2007
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984070680102771

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