Evolving behavioral choice: An investigation of Herrnstein's matching law

In 1961, Herrnstein famously observed that many animals match the frequency of their response to different stimuli in proportion to the reinforcement obtained from each stimulus type. Since then, a great deal of research has attempted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this ``matching law'', so far without a clear consensus emerging. Here, we take the view that ``choice behaviour'' is a product of agent, environment, and observer, and that ``mechanisms of choice'' are therefore not to be located solely within the chooser. A simple model, employing the novel methodology of evolving choice behaviour in a multi-agent system, is used to demonstrate that matching behaviour can occur (in stable environments) without any dedicated choice mechanism