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AUTOSHAPING AS A FUNCTION OF PRIOR FOOD PRESENTATIONS 1
Author(s) -
Downing Kevin,
Neuringer Allen
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1976.26-463
Subject(s) - peck (imperial) , shaping , psychology , pecking order , conditioning , generality , food delivery , statistics , developmental psychology , mathematics , ecology , marketing , biology , geometry , psychotherapist , business
Young chickens were given 1, 10, 100, or 1000 presentations of grain in a hopper. Subsequently, the key was illuminated before each presentation of grain to study autoshaping of the key‐peck response. The number of keylight‐grain pairings before a bird first pecked the lighted key was found to be a U‐shaped function of the number of prior food‐only presentations, with pecks occurring significantly sooner after 100 food‐only trials than after any of the other values. Two of five chicks at the 100‐trial value pecked on the first illumination of the key. Experiment II showed further that when a series of food‐only trials (no keylight) preceded keylight‐only trials (no food) 30% of the chicks pecked the illuminated key. Experiment III extended the generality of first‐trial pecking to pigeons. After preliminary training with food‐only, two of five pigeons pecked on the first illumination of a key. The results suggest a close relationship between autoshaping and pseudo‐conditioning.