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SIGNAL‐CONTROLLED RESPONDING
Author(s) -
Lewis Paul,
Stoyak Michael
Publication year - 1979
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.1979.31-115
Subject(s) - peck (imperial) , tone (literature) , psychology , conditioning , audiology , communication , speech recognition , statistics , mathematics , computer science , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , geometry
Pigeons' key pecks were reinforced with grain, then extinguished. An 8‐second tone preceded the availability of peck‐dependent grain 1 second after tone offset. When a tone signalled grain and an 8‐second clicking sound did not, three pigeons pecked during a high percentage of tone periods, but they pecked during a low percentage of click periods. When the roles of the tone and clicking sound were reversed, performance reversed. For other birds, when a key peck during the tone cancelled the availability of grain (omission procedure), the tendency to key peck during the tone decreased some, but still remained high. A third group of pigeons received the omission procedure with the addition that the tone could not end unless 2 seconds had elapsed without a key peck. The pigeons continued to respond in a high percentage of tone periods. The experiments favor an explanation based on the pairing of the tone with a reinforced response, such as Pavlovian conditioning.