The Experts below are selected from a list of 264 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Sacha Bourgeois-gironde - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Quantity–quality trade-off in the acquisition of token preference by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021Co-Authors: E. Quintiero, Francesca De Petrillo, Serena Gastaldi, Elsa Addessi, Sacha Bourgeois-girondeAbstract:Money represents a cornerstone of human modern economies and how money emerged as a medium of exchange is a crucial question for social sciences. Although non-human primates have not developed Monetary Systems, they can estimate, combine and exchange tokens. Here, we evaluated quantity–quality trade-offs in token choices in tufted capuchin monkeys as a first step in the investigation of the generalizability of tokens as reinforcers, which is a potentially relevant factor underlying the emergence of money in humans. We measured capuchins' exchange preferences when they were repeatedly provided with 10 units of three token types yielding food combinations varying in quantity and quality. Overall, capuchins maximized their quantitative payoff, preferring tokens associated with a higher food amount, rather than showing violations of rationality. However, some individuals did not maximize their qualitative payoff, possibly because of conditional valuation effects or owing to the choice overload phenomenon, according to which too many options reduce the accuracy of choice. Our study supports the importance of comparative research to finely analyse the multiple components shaping the economic behaviours of other species, possibly to achieve a more comprehensive, evolutionary- and ecologically based understanding of human economic behaviour.
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Evolutionary origins of money categorization and exchange: an experimental investigation in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Animal Cognition, 2019Co-Authors: Francesca De Petrillo, Martina Caroli, Emanuele Gori, Antonia Micucci, Serena Gastaldi, Sacha Bourgeois-gironde, Elsa AddessiAbstract:Money is a cultural artefact with a central role in human society. Here, we investigated whether some features of money may be traced back to the exchange habits of nonhuman animals, capitalizing on their ability to flexibly use tokens in dif-ferent domains. In Experiment 1, we evaluated whether capuchins can recognize token validity. Six subjects were required to exchange with the experimenter valid/familiar tokens, valid/unfamiliar tokens, invalid tokens, and no-value items. They first exchanged a similar number of valid/familiar and valid/unfamiliar tokens, followed by exchanges of invalid tokens and no-value items. Thus, as humans, capuchins readily recognized token validity, regardless of familiarity. In Experiment 2, we further evaluated the flexibility of the token–food association by assessing whether capuchins could engage in reverse food–token exchanges. Subjects spontaneously performed chains of exchanges, in which a food item was exchanged for a token, and then the token was exchanged for another food. However, performance was better as the advantage gained from the exchange increased. Overall, capuchins recognized token validity and successfully engaged in chains of reverse and direct exchanges. This suggests that—although nonhuman animals are far from having fully-fledged Monetary Systems—for capuchins tokens share at least some features with human money.
Elsa Addessi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Quantity–quality trade-off in the acquisition of token preference by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021Co-Authors: E. Quintiero, Francesca De Petrillo, Serena Gastaldi, Elsa Addessi, Sacha Bourgeois-girondeAbstract:Money represents a cornerstone of human modern economies and how money emerged as a medium of exchange is a crucial question for social sciences. Although non-human primates have not developed Monetary Systems, they can estimate, combine and exchange tokens. Here, we evaluated quantity–quality trade-offs in token choices in tufted capuchin monkeys as a first step in the investigation of the generalizability of tokens as reinforcers, which is a potentially relevant factor underlying the emergence of money in humans. We measured capuchins' exchange preferences when they were repeatedly provided with 10 units of three token types yielding food combinations varying in quantity and quality. Overall, capuchins maximized their quantitative payoff, preferring tokens associated with a higher food amount, rather than showing violations of rationality. However, some individuals did not maximize their qualitative payoff, possibly because of conditional valuation effects or owing to the choice overload phenomenon, according to which too many options reduce the accuracy of choice. Our study supports the importance of comparative research to finely analyse the multiple components shaping the economic behaviours of other species, possibly to achieve a more comprehensive, evolutionary- and ecologically based understanding of human economic behaviour.
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Evolutionary origins of money categorization and exchange: an experimental investigation in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Animal Cognition, 2019Co-Authors: Francesca De Petrillo, Martina Caroli, Emanuele Gori, Antonia Micucci, Serena Gastaldi, Sacha Bourgeois-gironde, Elsa AddessiAbstract:Money is a cultural artefact with a central role in human society. Here, we investigated whether some features of money may be traced back to the exchange habits of nonhuman animals, capitalizing on their ability to flexibly use tokens in dif-ferent domains. In Experiment 1, we evaluated whether capuchins can recognize token validity. Six subjects were required to exchange with the experimenter valid/familiar tokens, valid/unfamiliar tokens, invalid tokens, and no-value items. They first exchanged a similar number of valid/familiar and valid/unfamiliar tokens, followed by exchanges of invalid tokens and no-value items. Thus, as humans, capuchins readily recognized token validity, regardless of familiarity. In Experiment 2, we further evaluated the flexibility of the token–food association by assessing whether capuchins could engage in reverse food–token exchanges. Subjects spontaneously performed chains of exchanges, in which a food item was exchanged for a token, and then the token was exchanged for another food. However, performance was better as the advantage gained from the exchange increased. Overall, capuchins recognized token validity and successfully engaged in chains of reverse and direct exchanges. This suggests that—although nonhuman animals are far from having fully-fledged Monetary Systems—for capuchins tokens share at least some features with human money.
Francesca De Petrillo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Quantity–quality trade-off in the acquisition of token preference by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021Co-Authors: E. Quintiero, Francesca De Petrillo, Serena Gastaldi, Elsa Addessi, Sacha Bourgeois-girondeAbstract:Money represents a cornerstone of human modern economies and how money emerged as a medium of exchange is a crucial question for social sciences. Although non-human primates have not developed Monetary Systems, they can estimate, combine and exchange tokens. Here, we evaluated quantity–quality trade-offs in token choices in tufted capuchin monkeys as a first step in the investigation of the generalizability of tokens as reinforcers, which is a potentially relevant factor underlying the emergence of money in humans. We measured capuchins' exchange preferences when they were repeatedly provided with 10 units of three token types yielding food combinations varying in quantity and quality. Overall, capuchins maximized their quantitative payoff, preferring tokens associated with a higher food amount, rather than showing violations of rationality. However, some individuals did not maximize their qualitative payoff, possibly because of conditional valuation effects or owing to the choice overload phenomenon, according to which too many options reduce the accuracy of choice. Our study supports the importance of comparative research to finely analyse the multiple components shaping the economic behaviours of other species, possibly to achieve a more comprehensive, evolutionary- and ecologically based understanding of human economic behaviour.
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Evolutionary origins of money categorization and exchange: an experimental investigation in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Animal Cognition, 2019Co-Authors: Francesca De Petrillo, Martina Caroli, Emanuele Gori, Antonia Micucci, Serena Gastaldi, Sacha Bourgeois-gironde, Elsa AddessiAbstract:Money is a cultural artefact with a central role in human society. Here, we investigated whether some features of money may be traced back to the exchange habits of nonhuman animals, capitalizing on their ability to flexibly use tokens in dif-ferent domains. In Experiment 1, we evaluated whether capuchins can recognize token validity. Six subjects were required to exchange with the experimenter valid/familiar tokens, valid/unfamiliar tokens, invalid tokens, and no-value items. They first exchanged a similar number of valid/familiar and valid/unfamiliar tokens, followed by exchanges of invalid tokens and no-value items. Thus, as humans, capuchins readily recognized token validity, regardless of familiarity. In Experiment 2, we further evaluated the flexibility of the token–food association by assessing whether capuchins could engage in reverse food–token exchanges. Subjects spontaneously performed chains of exchanges, in which a food item was exchanged for a token, and then the token was exchanged for another food. However, performance was better as the advantage gained from the exchange increased. Overall, capuchins recognized token validity and successfully engaged in chains of reverse and direct exchanges. This suggests that—although nonhuman animals are far from having fully-fledged Monetary Systems—for capuchins tokens share at least some features with human money.
Serena Gastaldi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Quantity–quality trade-off in the acquisition of token preference by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021Co-Authors: E. Quintiero, Francesca De Petrillo, Serena Gastaldi, Elsa Addessi, Sacha Bourgeois-girondeAbstract:Money represents a cornerstone of human modern economies and how money emerged as a medium of exchange is a crucial question for social sciences. Although non-human primates have not developed Monetary Systems, they can estimate, combine and exchange tokens. Here, we evaluated quantity–quality trade-offs in token choices in tufted capuchin monkeys as a first step in the investigation of the generalizability of tokens as reinforcers, which is a potentially relevant factor underlying the emergence of money in humans. We measured capuchins' exchange preferences when they were repeatedly provided with 10 units of three token types yielding food combinations varying in quantity and quality. Overall, capuchins maximized their quantitative payoff, preferring tokens associated with a higher food amount, rather than showing violations of rationality. However, some individuals did not maximize their qualitative payoff, possibly because of conditional valuation effects or owing to the choice overload phenomenon, according to which too many options reduce the accuracy of choice. Our study supports the importance of comparative research to finely analyse the multiple components shaping the economic behaviours of other species, possibly to achieve a more comprehensive, evolutionary- and ecologically based understanding of human economic behaviour.
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Evolutionary origins of money categorization and exchange: an experimental investigation in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)
Animal Cognition, 2019Co-Authors: Francesca De Petrillo, Martina Caroli, Emanuele Gori, Antonia Micucci, Serena Gastaldi, Sacha Bourgeois-gironde, Elsa AddessiAbstract:Money is a cultural artefact with a central role in human society. Here, we investigated whether some features of money may be traced back to the exchange habits of nonhuman animals, capitalizing on their ability to flexibly use tokens in dif-ferent domains. In Experiment 1, we evaluated whether capuchins can recognize token validity. Six subjects were required to exchange with the experimenter valid/familiar tokens, valid/unfamiliar tokens, invalid tokens, and no-value items. They first exchanged a similar number of valid/familiar and valid/unfamiliar tokens, followed by exchanges of invalid tokens and no-value items. Thus, as humans, capuchins readily recognized token validity, regardless of familiarity. In Experiment 2, we further evaluated the flexibility of the token–food association by assessing whether capuchins could engage in reverse food–token exchanges. Subjects spontaneously performed chains of exchanges, in which a food item was exchanged for a token, and then the token was exchanged for another food. However, performance was better as the advantage gained from the exchange increased. Overall, capuchins recognized token validity and successfully engaged in chains of reverse and direct exchanges. This suggests that—although nonhuman animals are far from having fully-fledged Monetary Systems—for capuchins tokens share at least some features with human money.
Aviv Zohar - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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on bitcoin and red balloons
Electronic Commerce, 2012Co-Authors: Moshe Babaioff, Sigal Oren, Shahar Dobzinski, Aviv ZoharAbstract:Many large decentralized Systems rely on information propagation to ensure their proper function. We examine a common scenario in which only participants that are aware of the information can compete for some reward, and thus informed participants have an incentive not to propagate information to others. One recent example in which such tension arises is the 2009 DARPA Network Challenge (finding red balloons). We focus on another prominent example: Bitcoin, a decentralized electronic currency system. Bitcoin represents a radical new approach to Monetary Systems. It has been getting a large amount of public attention over the last year, both in policy discussions and in the popular press. Its cryptographic fundamentals have largely held up even as its usage has become increasingly widespread. We find, however, that it exhibits a fundamental problem of a different nature, based on how its incentives are structured. We propose a modification to the protocol that can eliminate this problem. Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network to track transactions that are performed with the currency. For this purpose, every transaction a node learns about should be transmitted to its neighbors in the network. As the protocol is currently defined and implemented, it does not provide an incentive for nodes to broadcast transactions they are aware of. In fact, it provides an incentive not to do so. Our solution is to augment the protocol with a scheme that rewards information propagation. Since clones are easy to create in the Bitcoin system, an important feature of our scheme is Sybil-proofness. We show that our proposed scheme succeeds in setting the correct incentives, that it is Sybil-proof, and that it requires only a small payment overhead, all this is achieved with iterated elimination of dominated strategies. We complement this result by showing that there are no reward schemes in which information propagation and no self-cloning is a dominant strategy.
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On bitcoin and red balloons
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, 2012Co-Authors: Moshe Babaioff, Sigal Oren, Shahar Dobzinski, Aviv ZoharAbstract:Many large decentralized Systems rely on information propagation to ensure their proper function. We examine a common scenario in which only participants that are aware of the information can compete for some reward, and thus informed participants have an incentive not to propagate information to others. One recent example in which such tension arises is the 2009 DARPA Network Challenge (finding red balloons). We focus on another prominent example: Bitcoin, a decentralized electronic currency system. Bitcoin represents a radical new approach to Monetary Systems. It has been getting a large amount of public attention over the last year, both in policy discussions and in the popular press. Its cryptographic fundamentals have largely held up even as its usage has become increasingly widespread. We find, however, that it exhibits a fundamental problem of a different nature, based on how its incentives are structured. We propose a modification to the protocol that can eliminate this problem. Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network to track transactions that are performed with the currency. For this purpose, every transaction a node learns about should be transmitted to its neighbors in the network. The current implemented protocol provides an incentive to nodes to not broadcast transactions they are aware of. Our solution is to augment the protocol with a scheme that rewards information propagation. Since clones are easy to create in the Bitcoin system, an important feature of our scheme is Sybil-proofness. We show that our proposed scheme succeeds in setting the correct incentives, that it is Sybil-proof, and that it requires only a small payment overhead, all this is achieved with iterated elimination of dominated strategies. We complement this result by showing that there are no reward schemes in which information propagation and no self-cloning is a dominant strategy.