Foraging

This chapter considers foraging behavior and its connections with learning and memory. The chapter reviews the basic models of foraging that behavioral ecologists have developed over the last 40 years. These models provide an economic framework for the study of foraging. Animals forage in a changing environment, and they must adjust their foraging to these changes. Learning and memory play a key role in making these adjustments. The chapter discusses learning mechanisms constraining foraging behavior and how economic principles affect the fitness value of learning. Finally, the chapter reviews the emerging topics of nutritional geometry, semantic patches, and the neuroscience of foraging, and discusses their connections with learning and memory.