Learning Foraging Thresholds for Lizards: an Analysis of a Simple Learning Algorithm
✍ Scribed by Leslie Ann Goldberg; William E. Hart; David Bruce Wilson
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 138 KB
- Volume
- 197
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-5193
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This paper gives proof of convergence for a learning algorithm that describes how anoles (lizards found in the Caribbean) learn foraging threshold distance. An anole will pursue a prey if and only if it is within this threshold of the anole's perch. The learning algorithm was proposed by Roughgarden and his colleagues. They experimentally determined that this algorithm quickly converges to the foraging threshold that is predicted by optimal foraging theory. We provide analytic confirmation that the optimal foraging behavior as predicted by Roughgarden's model can be attained by a lizard that follows this simple and zoologically plausible rule of thumb.