Fig. 3.

Model-free results. (A) Planet richness influences overharvesting and underharvesting behavior. Planet residence times (PRT) relative to the marginal value theorem’s (MVT) prediction are plotted as the median (± one quartile) across participants. The gray line indicates the median, while the white cross indicates the mean. Individuals’ PRTs relative to MVT are plotted as shaded circles. In aggregate, participants overharvested on poor and neutral planets and acted MVT optimally on rich planets. (B) Decision times are longer following rare switch transitions. If a participant has knowledge of the environment’s planet types and the transition structure between them, then they should be surprised following a rare transition to a different type. Consequently, they should take longer to decide following these transitions. As predicted, participants spent longer making a decision following transitions to different types (“switch”) relative to when there was transition to a planet of the same type (“no switch”). This is consistent with having knowledge of the environment’s structure and dynamics. (C) Overharvesting increases following rare switch transitions. On poor and neutral planets, participants overhavested to a greater extent following a rare “switch” transition relative to when there was a “no switch” transition. This is consistent with uncertainty adaptive discounting. Switches to different planet types should be points of greater uncertainty. This greater uncertainty produces heavier discounting and in turn staying longer with the current option.*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.