This thesis examines a series of problems with the goal of better understanding the fundamental dilemma of whether to invest effort in obtaining information that may lead to better opportunities in the future versus exploiting immediately available opportunities. In particular this work investigates how this dilemma is affected by competition in an evolutionary setting. To achieve this requires both the use of evolutionary game theory, and Markov decision procesess or stochastic dynamic programming. This thesis grows directly out of earlier work on the Social Learning Strategies Tournament. Although I cast the problem in the biological setting of optimal foraging theory, where it fills an obvious gap, this fundamental dilemma should also be of some interest to economists, operations researchers, as well as those working in ecology, evolution and behaviour. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-31 19:55:25.11
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OKQ.1974/6999 |
| Date | 01 February 2012 |
| Creators | COWNDEN, DANIEL |
| Contributors | Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). Theses (Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.)) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner. |
| Relation | Canadian theses |
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