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PIGEONS' DISCRIMINATION OF MICHOTTE'S LAUNCHING EFFECT
Author(s) -
Young Michael E.,
Beckmann Joshua S.,
Wasserman Edward A.
Publication year - 2006
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.2006.60-05
Subject(s) - pecking order , peck (imperial) , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , cognitive psychology , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology , evolutionary biology , agronomy
We trained four pigeons to discriminate a Michotte launching animation from three other animations using a go/no‐go task. The pigeons received food for pecking at one of the animations, but not for pecking at the others. The four animations featured two types of interactions among objects: causal (direct launching) and noncausal (delayed, distal, and distal & delayed). Two pigeons were reinforced for pecking at the causal interaction, but not at the noncausal interactions; two other pigeons were reinforced for pecking at the distal & delayed interaction, but not at the other interactions. Both discriminations proved difficult for the pigeons to master; later tests suggested that the pigeons often learned the discriminations by attending to subtle stimulus properties other than the intended ones.