期刊名称：Evolutionary Psychology: an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
印刷版ISSN：1474-7049
出版年度：2015
卷号：13
DOI：10.1177/1474704915624738
语种：English
出版社：Ian Pitchford, Ed.& Pub
摘要：This article describes a software tool called “Pursuit” that is intended to be used for both research and teaching on the topic of optimal foraging theory. The tool provides a dynamic graphical and auditory interface in which users encounter different prey animals and then must decide whether to pursue or ignore the encountered prey. Based on the characteristics of the prey in the foraging environment and the decisions of the player, each user harvests a set of prey per round and achieves a corresponding foraging return rate. Administrators of Pursuit specify the environmental parameters that determine what prey users will encounter. All environmental parameters and user decisions are tracked and logged for analysis. We created this tool for laboratory experiments, but we believe Pursuit could also be an engaging and effective teaching tool, whereby students adopt the role of forager, and through such play, experience a simulated foraging context and learn about foraging theory. Pursuit is freely available and can run on any platform that supports Java, including Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.
