Opportunity cost determines free-operant action initiation latency and predicts apathy

Abstract Background Apathy, a disabling and poorly understood neuropsychiatric symptom, is characterised by impaired self-initiated behaviour. It has been hypothesised that the opportunity cost of time (OCT) may be a key computational variable linking self-initiated behaviour with motivational status. OCT represents the amount of reward which is foregone per second if no action is taken. Using a novel behavioural task and computational modelling, we investigated the relationship between OCT, self-initiation and apathy. We predicted that higher OCT would engender shorter action latencies, and that individuals with greater sensitivity to OCT would have higher behavioural apathy. Methods We modulated the OCT in a novel task called the ‘Fisherman Game’, Participants freely chose when to self-initiate actions to either collect rewards, or on occasion, to complete non-rewarding actions. We measured the relationship between action latencies, OCT and apathy for each participant across two independent non-clinical studies, one under laboratory conditions (n = 21) and one online (n = 90). ‘Average-reward’ reinforcement learning was used to model our data. We replicated our findings across both studies. Results We show that the latency of self-initiation is driven by changes in the OCT. Furthermore, we demonstrate, for the first time, that participants with higher apathy showed greater sensitivity to changes in OCT in younger adults. Our model shows that apathetic individuals experienced greatest change in subjective OCT during our task as a consequence of being more sensitive to rewards. Conclusions Our results suggest that OCT is an important variable for determining free-operant action initiation and understanding apathy.

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Opportunity cost determines action initiation latency and predicts apathy

10.31234/osf.io/d9pgz ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Akshay Nair ◽

Ritwik K. Niyogi ◽

Fei Shang ◽

Sarah J. Tabrizi ◽

Geraint Rees ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Opportunity Cost ◽

Computational Modelling ◽

Important Variable ◽

Average Reward ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Free Operant ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

First Time ◽

The Relationship ◽

Action Initiation

Background: Apathy, a disabling and poorly understood neuropsychiatric symptom, is characterised by impaired self-initiated behaviour. Although the computational mechanisms that determine self-initiation are poorly understood, it has been hypothesised that the opportunity cost of time (OCT) may be a key variable linking self-initiated behaviour with motivational status. Using a novel behavioural task and computational modelling, we investigated the relationship between OCT, self-initiation and apathy. OCT represents the amount of reward which is foregone per second if no action is taken. We predicted that higher OCT would engender shorter action latencies, and that individuals with greater sensitivity to OCT would have higher behavioural apathy.Methods: We modulated the OCT in a novel task called the ‘Fisherman Game’, Participants freely chose when to self-initiate actions to either collect rewards, or on occasion, to complete non-rewarding actions. We measured the relationship between action latencies, OCT and apathy for each participant across two independent non-clinical studies, one under laboratory conditions (n=21) and one online (n=90). ‘Average-reward’ reinforcement learning was used to model our data. We replicated our findings across both studies.Results: We show that the latency of self-initiation is driven by changes in the OCT. Furthermore, we demonstrate, for the first time, higher apathy was showed greater sensitivity to changes in OCT in younger adults. Our model shows that apathetic individuals experienced greatest change in subjective OCT during our task as a consequence of being more sensitive to rewards.Conclusions: Our results suggest that OCT is an important variable for determining free-operant action initiation and understanding apathy.

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Seizing the Opportunity: Lifespan Differences in the Effects of the Opportunity Cost of Time on Cognitive Control

10.31234/osf.io/xp6kh ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sean Devine ◽

Cassandra Neumann ◽

A. Ross Otto ◽

Florian Bolenz ◽

Andrea M.F. Reiter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Developmental Model ◽

Average Reward ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Reward Rate ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

Opportunity Cost Of Time

Previous work suggests that lifespan developmental differences in cognitive control reflect maturational and aging-related changes in prefrontal cortex functioning. However, complementary explanations exist: It could be that children and older adults differ from younger adults in how they balance the effort of engaging in control against its potential benefits. Here we test whether the degree of cognitive effort expenditure depends on the opportunity cost of time (average reward rate per unit time): if the average reward rate is high, participants should withhold cognitive effort whereas if it is low, they should invest more. In Experiment 1, we examine this hypothesis in children, adolescents, younger, and older adults, by applying a reward rate manipulation in two cognitive control tasks: a modified Erikson Flanker and a task-switching paradigm. We found that young adults and adolescents reflexively withheld effort when the opportunity cost of time was high, whereas older adults and, to a lesser degree children, invested more resources to accumulate reward as quickly as possible. We tentatively interpret these results in terms of age- and task-specific differences in the processing of the opportunity cost of time. We qualify our findings in a second experiment in younger adults in which we address an alternative explanation of our results and show that the observed age differences in effort expenditure may not result from differences in task difficulty. To conclude, we think that our results present an interesting first step at relating opportunity costs to motivational processes across the lifespan. We frame the implications of further work in this area within a recent developmental model of resource-rationality, which points to developmental sweet spots in cognitive control.

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The Relationship Between Economic Value of Time and Feelings of Time Pressure

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.2015.43.8.1395 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 43 (8) ◽

pp. 1395-1407 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Changkai Chen ◽

Hua Xu ◽

Juanjuan Zheng

Keyword(s):

Opportunity Cost ◽

General Public ◽

Time Perspective ◽

Time Pressure ◽

Economic Value ◽

Value Of Time ◽

Subjective Expectations ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

The Relationship

The issue of time pressure concerns both scholars and the general public. We conducted 2 experiments in which university students (67 participants in Experiment 1, 69 in Experiment 2) were randomly assigned to different economic values of time. Contrary to previous findings, we found that subjective expectations played an important mediating role in the relationship between the economic value of time and feelings of time pressure. If the economic value of time was lower than the participants expected, this negatively affected their perceived time pressure. In contrast, if the economic value was higher than the participants expected, this enhanced their perceived time pressure. We found that the opportunity cost of time perspective was the most applicable of 3 theoretical explanations in explaining the relationship between the economic value of time and time pressure.

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The Labor Supply Effects of Delayed First Birth

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.p20151119 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 105 (5) ◽

pp. 630-637 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jane Leber Herr

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Labor Supply ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

College Graduates ◽

High School Graduates ◽

First Birth ◽

First Birth Timing ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

The Relationship ◽

Shaped Pattern

In this paper I compare the relationship between first-birth timing and post-birth labor supply for high school and college graduate mothers. Given that pre-birth wages are increasing in fertility delay, the rising opportunity cost of time would suggest that among both groups, later mothers work more. Yet I only find this pattern for high school graduates. For college graduates, I instead find that there is a strong U-shaped pattern between hours worked within motherhood, and the career timing of first birth.

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Deliberation gated by opportunity cost adapts to context with urgency

10.1101/2021.07.31.452742 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maximilian Puelma Touzel ◽

Paul Cisek ◽

Guillaume Lajoie

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Reinforcement Learning ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Average Reward ◽

Neural Recordings ◽

Performance Variation ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

Context Specific ◽

The Cost ◽

Future Work

The value we place on our time impacts what we decide to do with it. Value it too little, and we obsess over all details. Value it too much, and we rush carelessly to move on. How to strike this often context-specific balance is a challenging decision-making problem. Average-reward, putatively encoded by tonic dopamine, serves in existing reinforcement learning theory as the stationary opportunity cost of time. However, environmental context and the cost of deliberation therein often varies in time and is hard to infer and predict. Here, we define a non-stationary opportunity cost of deliberation arising from performance variation on multiple timescales. Estimated from reward history, this cost readily adapts to reward-relevant changes in context and suggests a generalization of average-reward reinforcement learning (AR-RL) to account for non-stationary contextual factors. We use this deliberation cost in a simple decision-making heuristic called Performance-Gated Deliberation, which approximates AR-RL and is consistent with empirical results in both cognitive and systems decision-making neuroscience. We propose that deliberation cost is implemented directly as urgency, a previously characterized neural signal effectively controlling the speed of the decision-making process. We use behaviour and neural recordings from non-human primates in a non-stationary random walk prediction task to support our results. We make readily testable predictions for both neural activity and behaviour and discuss how this proposal can facilitate future work in cognitive and systems neuroscience of reward-driven behaviour.

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The opportunity cost of time modulates cognitive effort

10.1101/201863 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

A. Ross Otto ◽

Nathaniel D. Daw

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Recent Work ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Average Reward ◽

Perceptual Decision Making ◽

Diverse Range ◽

Reward Rate ◽

Cost Of Time ◽

Opportunity Cost Of Time

AbstractA spate of recent work demonstrates that humans seek to avoid the expenditure of cognitive effort, much like physical effort or economic resources. Less is clear, however, about the circumstances dictating how and when people decide to expend cognitive effort. Here we adopt a popular theory of opportunity costs and response vigor and to elucidate this question. This account, grounded in Reinforcement Learning, formalizes a trade-off between two costs: the harder work assumed necessary to emit faster actions and the opportunity cost inherent in acting more slowly (i.e., the delay that results to the next reward and subsequent rewards). Recent work reveals that the opportunity cost of time—operationalized as the average reward rate per unit time, theorized to be signaled by tonic dopamine levels, modulates the speed with which a person responds in a simple discrimination tasks. We extend this framework to cognitive effort in a diverse range of cognitive tasks, for which 1) the amount of cognitive effort demanded from the task varies from trial to trial and 2) the putative expenditure of cognitive effort holds measureable consequences in terms of accuracy and response time. In the domains of cognitive control, perceptual decision-making, and task-switching, we found that subjects tuned their level of effort exertion in accordance with the experienced average reward rate: when the opportunity cost of time was high, subjects made more errors and responded more quickly, which we interpret as a withdrawal of cognitive effort. That is, expenditure of cognitive effort appeared to be modulated by the opportunity cost of time. Further, and consistent with our account, the strength of this modulation was predicted by individual differences in efficacy of cognitive control. Taken together, our results elucidate the circumstances dictating how and when people expend cognitive effort.

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Affirmative Action and Leadership Attitudes in Brazilian Women Managers

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000039 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 139-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Gazi Islam ◽

Sarah E. S. Zilenovsky

Keyword(s):

Affirmative Action ◽

Latin American ◽

Women Managers ◽

Psychological Effects ◽

Preferential Selection ◽

Justice Perceptions ◽

First Time ◽

The Relationship

This note examines the relationship between affirmative action (AA) program perceptions and women’s self-ascribed capacity and desire to become leaders. We propose that women who believe that their organization implements a program of preferential selection toward women will experience negative psychological effects leading to lowered self-expectations for leadership, but that this effect will be moderated by their justice perceptions of AA programs. We test this proposition empirically for the first time with a Latin American female sample. Among Brazilian women managers, desire but not self-ascribed capacity to lead was reduced when they believed an AA policy was in place. Both desire’s and capacity’s relationships with belief in an AA policy were moderated by justice perceptions.

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ЗУБРЫ НА СЕВЕРЕ РОССИИ — НАСТОЯЩЕЕ И БУДУЩЕЕ

Molochnoe i miasnoe skotovodstvo ◽

10.33943/mms.2019.3.31722 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 42-44

Author(s):

I.V. GUSAROV ◽

V.A. OSTAPENKO ◽

T.V. NOVIKOVА

Keyword(s):

Biological Diversity ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Economic Consequences ◽

European Bison ◽

Rare And Endangered Species ◽

The North ◽

Rare And Endangered ◽

Relationship Of ◽

First Time ◽

The Relationship

Впервые в мире создана популяция зубров на территории 60 градусов северной широты. В новых климатических условиях разведения и сохранения зубров определены и проанализированы факторы существования вида на севере Европейской части РФ. Выявлены признаки, динамика численности, которые являются составной частью системы, предназначенной для управления биоразнообразием. Интродукция, являясь процессом введения в экосистему нехарактерных для нее видов, может усиливать изменения биоценозов как положительно, так и отрицательно. Насколько быстро и успешно проходит процесс адаптации заселенного вида, и усматривается его влияние на окружающую среду зависит дальнейшее существование зубров и в целом биоразнообразия. В статье обсуждаются вопросы взаимоотношения зубров с другими видами копытных и хозяйственной деятельностью человека, а также дальнейшим использованием зубров в сельскохозяйственном производстве. Пластичность зубров, выявление изменений и их анализ при вселении видов в новые условия обитания необходимы не только для определения развития или деградации биоценозов и в целом экосистемы, но и прогноза социально-экономических последствий интродукции как одного из методов сохранения редких и исчезающих видов фауны.For the first time in the world, a bison population has been created in an area of 60 degrees north latitude. In the new climatic conditions of breeding and preservation of bison, the factors of the species existence in the north of the European part of the Russian Federation are identified and analyzed. The signs, dynamics of abundance, which are an integral part of the system designed to manage biodiversity are identified, since the preservation of biological diversity on the planet is one of the main problems of our time. Introduction, being the process of introducing non-typical species into an ecosystem, can enhance changes in biocenoses, both positively and negatively. The question posing sounds especially when it comes to such a large hoofed animal as the European bison. How quickly and successfully the process of adaptation of the universe takes place and its environmental impact is seen depends on the continued existence of bison and biodiversity in general. The article discusses the relationship of bison with other types of ungulates and human activities, as well as the further use of bison in agricultural production. How these issues will be resolved positively depends on the future of these animals. Thus, the plasticity of bison, the identification of changes and their analysis, with the introduction of species into new habitat conditions is necessary not only to determine the development or degradation of biocenoses and the ecosystem as a whole, but also to predict the socio-economic consequences due to the introduction as one of the methods of preserving rare and endangered species of fauna.

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A University Education

10.1093/oso/9780198767268.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

David Willetts

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Modern Society ◽

University Education ◽

Modern World ◽

Controversial Issues ◽

The Us ◽

The Individual ◽

The University ◽

First Time ◽

The Relationship

Universities have a crucial role in the modern world. In England, entrance to universities is by nation-wide competition which means English universities have an exceptional influence on schools--a striking theme of the book. This important book first investigates the university as an institution and then tracks the individual on their journey to and through university. In A University Education, David Willetts presents a compelling case for the ongoing importance of the university, both as one of the great institutions of modern society and as a transformational experience for the individual. The book also makes illuminating comparisons with higher education in other countries, especially the US and Germany. Drawing on his experience as UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, the author offers a powerful account of the value of higher education and the case for more expansion. He covers controversial issues in which he was involved from access for disadvantaged students to the introduction of L9,000 fees. The final section addresses some of the big questions for the future, such as the the relationship between universities and business, especially in promoting innovation.. He argues that the two great contemporary trends of globalisation and technological innovation will both change the university significantly. This is an authoritative account of English universities setting them for the first time in their new legal and regulatory framework.

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Recycling and Reuse in the Roman Economy

10.1093/oso/9780198860846.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Building Materials ◽

Computational Modelling ◽

Late Antique ◽

Roman Economy ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Status ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Methodological Approaches ◽

First Time ◽

Site Types

The recycling and reuse of materials and objects were extensive in the past, but have rarely been embedded into models of the economy; even more rarely has any attempt been made to assess the scale of these practices. Recent developments, including the use of large datasets, computational modelling, and high-resolution analytical chemistry, are increasingly offering the means to reconstruct recycling and reuse, and even to approach the thorny matter of quantification. Growing scholarly interest in the topic has also led to an increasing recognition of these practices from those employing more traditional methodological approaches, which are sometimes coupled with innovative archaeological theory. Thanks to these efforts, it has been possible for the first time in this volume to draw together archaeological case studies on the recycling and reuse of a wide range of materials, from papyri and textiles, to amphorae, metals and glass, building materials and statuary. Recycling and reuse occur at a range of site types, and often in contexts which cross-cut material categories, or move from one object category to another. The volume focuses principally on the Roman Imperial and late antique world, over a broad geographical span ranging from Britain to North Africa and the East Mediterranean. Last, but not least, the volume is unique in focusing upon these activities as a part of the status quo, and not just as a response to crisis.

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