Optimal foraging online: Increasing sensitivity to delay

This experiment is a replication and extension of the Rajala and Hantula (2000) study of sensitivity to feedback delay while shopping in a simulated Internet mall. The experiment consisted of three conditions: One group had an ascending clock placed on the computer screen to cue the passage of time, another group had a descending clock placed on the computer screen, and as a control and replication condition, another group had no clock on the computer screen. Participants were more sensitive to the delays in the various stores in the cybermall when an ascending clock was present on the screen. A hyperbolic discount function fit best described the number of entries into each store, amount of time spent in each store, and relative number of purchases in each store. A customer-satisfaction survey showed decreasing positive attitudes toward the stores as a function of delay. These results have implications both in terms of foraging theory applied to human behavior, as well as for the practice of online marketing. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  A. Kacelnik.  Normative and descriptive models of decision making: time discounting and risk sensitivity. , 2007, Ciba Foundation symposium.

[2]  Gordon R. Foxall,et al.  The behavioral ecology of brand choice: How and what do consumers maximize? , 2003 .

[3]  L. Hemerik,et al.  Linking foraging behavior to lifetime reproductive success for an insect parasitoid: adaptation to host distributions , 2003 .

[4]  Sarah S. Chance,et al.  Decisions and the evolution of memory: multiple systems, multiple functions. , 2002, Psychological review.

[5]  G. Rose,et al.  The Effect of Download Time on Consumer Attitude Toward the e-Service Retailer , 2001 .

[6]  Donald A. Hantula,et al.  The effects of download delay on performance and end-user satisfaction in an Internet tutorial , 2001, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[7]  Gregory M. Rose,et al.  A refined view of download time impacts on e‐consumer attitudes and patronage intentions toward e‐retailers , 2001 .

[8]  Gad Saad,et al.  Applications of evolutionary psychology in marketing , 2000 .

[9]  Donald A. Hantula,et al.  Towards a behavioral ecology of consumption: delay‐reduction effects on foraging in a simulated Internet mall , 2000 .

[10]  B. Winterhalder,et al.  Risk-senstive adaptive tactics: Models and evidence from subsistence studies in biology and anthropology , 1999 .

[11]  L. Cosmides,et al.  When and why do people avoid unknown probabilities in decisions under uncertainty? Testing some predictions from optimal foraging theory , 1999, Cognition.

[12]  J. Losco.  Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge , 1999, Politics and the Life Sciences.

[13]  Donald A. Hantula,et al.  Microworlds for experimental research: Having your (control and collection) cake, and realism too , 1998 .

[14]  Gary L. Brase,et al.  Individuation, counting, and statistical inference: The role of frequency and whole-object representations in judgment under uncertainty , 1998 .

[15]  S. Kollins,et al.  Human sensitivity to reinforcement in operant choice: How much do consequences matter? , 1997, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[16]  M. Davison,et al.  Residence time in concurrent foraging with fixed times to prey arrival. , 1997, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[17]  D. Navarick.  Choice in Humans: Techniques for Enhancing Sensitivity to Reinforcement Immediacy , 1996 .

[18]  Shirley Taylor.  The effects of filled waiting time and service provider control over the delay on evaluations of service , 1995 .

[19]  Richard W. Olshavsky,et al.  The price-choice relationship: A contingent processing approach , 1995 .

[20]  P. Sandstrom.  An Optimal Foraging Approach to Information Seeking and Use , 1994, The Library Quarterly.

[21]  U. Stockhorst.  Effects of different accessibility of reinforcement schedules on choice in humans. , 1994, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[22]  Shirley Taylor,et al.  Delays and the dynamics of service evaluations , 1994 .

[23]  W. A. Williams,et al.  Delay reduction and optimal foraging: variable-ratio search in a foraging analogue. , 1994, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[24]  T. Elsmore,et al.  An eight-alternative concurrent schedule: foraging in a radial maze. , 1994, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[25]  G. Foxall.  Behavior analysis and consumer psychology , 1994 .

[26]  R. A. Preston,et al.  Delay reduction: current status. , 1993, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[27]  E. Fantino.  Chapter 4 – Behavioral Ecology , 1991 .

[28]  Paula J. Haynes.  Hating to Wait: Managing the Final Service Encounter , 1990 .

[29]  E. Fantino,et al.  Instructions and reinforcement in the observing behavior of adults and children , 1989 .

[30]  A. Logue.  Research on self-control: An integrating framework , 1988, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[31]  A. Logue,et al.  Self-control in adult humans: variation in positive reinforcer amount and delay. , 1986, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[32]  D. J. Navarick,et al.  Human Impulsivity and Choice: A Challenge to Traditional Operant Methodology , 1986 .

[33]  E. Fantino,et al.  Choice, optimal foraging, and the delay-reduction hypothesis , 1985, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[34]  K. Hawkes,et al.  Food Choice and Foraging Sites among the Alyawara , 1984, Journal of Anthropological Research.

[35]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. , 1984 .

[36]  E. Fantino,et al.  Human observing: Maintained by stimuli correlated with reinforcement but not extinction. , 1983, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[37]  J. Kagel,et al.  Maximization theory in behavioral psychology , 1981, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[38]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[39]  W. Baum.  Choice in Free-Ranging Wild Pigeons , 1974, Science.

[40]  C. Darwin.  The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex: INDEX , 1871 .

[41]  E. Fantino,et al.  OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR CHOICE AND FORAGING , 2005 .

[42]  E. Fantino,et al.  OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR CHOICE , FORAGING , AND REINFORCER DURATION , 2005 .

[43]  D. Buss,et al.  Evolutionary Psychology: A New Paradigm for Psychological Science , 1995 .

[44]  Mark M. Davis,et al.  A Framework for Relating Waiting Time and Customer Satisfaction in a Service Operation , 1990 .

[45]  Sara J. Shettleworth,et al.  Foraging as Operant Behavior and Operant Behavior as Foraging: What Have We Learned? , 1988 .

[46]  E Fantino,et al.  Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Ecology: A Synergistic Coupling , 1985, The Behavior analyst.

[47]  J. Staddon.  Adaptive behavior and learning , 1983 .

[48]  Bruce Winterhalder,et al.  Foraging strategies in the boreal forest: An analysis of Cree hunting and gathering , 1981 .

[49]  Daniel Katz.  Handbook of Social Psychology. , 1955 .

[50]  C. Darwin.  The descent of man, and Selection in relation to sex, Vol 1. , 1871 .

[51]  Peter C. Verhoef,et al.  Erim Report Series Research in Management Consumer Perception and Evaluation of Waiting Time: a Field Experiment Bibliographic Data and Classifications , 2022 .