A general expression for the reproductive value of information

Rebecca K. Pike, John M. McNamara and Alasdair I. Houston

Behavioral Ecology, 2016, vol. 27, issue 5, 1296-1303

Abstract: Information transfer and utilization is ubiquitous in nature. Animals can increase their reproductive value by changing their behavior in light of new information. Previous work has shown that the reproductive value of information can never be negative given an animal behaves optimally. Statistical decision theory uses Bayes’ theorem as a mathematical tool to model how animals process information gained from their environment. We use this technique with an optimality model to establish a new expression for the value of information when behavior is chosen from a continuous range of possibilities. Our expression highlights that the value of information is proportional to the rate of change of behavior with information. We illustrate our approach using the cooperative behavior between a male and a female raising their common young. We show that the value of knowing about one’s partner can be quantified and establish the value of information to a member of the pair when the continuous trait is how long to spend caring for their young. However, the applications of this expression are wider reaching than parental care decisions and can be used to analyze the behavior of individuals across a variety of species and contexts.

Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arw044 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:27:y:2016:i:5:p:1296-1303.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().