Exploration and Exploitation in a Foraging Resource Acquisition Task: Implications From Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

Sleep deprivation effects in a fluid, real-time competitive environment are examined using a resource acquisition foraging task. The task is ideal for examining the exploration–exploitation tradeoff in decision making. The exploration–exploitation tradeoff is the balancing of previously successful strategies with the adoption of new strategies. The Generalized Exploration Model is used to develop tasks for which either exploitation or exploration is optimal. Preliminary results from an ongoing sleep deprivation study demonstrate the technique in practice and suggest that sleep deprivation leads to impairment in the exploitation task but not in the exploration task.