Decision Making and Risky Choice in animals: a biological perspective.

Virtually all decisions taken by living beings, from financial investments to life history, mate choice or anti-predator responses involve uncertainties and inter-temporal trade offs. Thus, hypothesis and formal models from these different fields often have heuristic value across disciplines. I will present theories and experiments about temporal discounting and risky choice originating in behavioural research on birds. Among other topics, I will address empirical observations showing risk aversion for gains and risk proneness for losses, exploring parallels and differences between Prospect Theory, Risk Sensitivity Theory and Scalar Utility Theory.