SEASONAL VARIATION IN PIGEON BODY WEIGHT AND DELAYED MATCHING‐TO‐SAMPLE PERFORMANCE
Author(s) -
Sargisson Rebecca J.,
McLean Ian G.,
Brown Glenn S.,
White K. Geoffrey
Publication year - 2007
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.2007.88-395
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , statistics , forgetting , body weight , sample (material) , zoology , mathematics , variation (astronomy) , biology , psychology , chemistry , cognitive psychology , chromatography , endocrinology , physics , astrophysics
The weights of 5 pigeons with free access to food, monitored over 3 calendar years in the laboratory, were found to fluctuate with season. All pigeons were at their heaviest in the winter and were lightest in the summer. Five different pigeons performed a standard delayed matching‐to‐sample task for 44 weeks from January to November. Their weights were held at 85% of their summer free‐feeding weights, making their predicted deprivation level higher in the winter relative to predicted winter free‐feeding weights. Slopes of forgetting functions fit to weekly response totals for each pigeon were shallower in winter, showing an improvement in accuracy with longer delays. Thus, delayed matching‐to‐sample performance may have been affected by the practice of maintaining the pigeons at a constant body weight throughout the calendar year.