Premium
WHY PIGEONS SAY WHAT THEY DO: REINFORCER MAGNITUDE AND RESPONSE REQUIREMENT EFFECTS ON SAY RESPONDING IN SAY—DO CORRESPONDENCE
Author(s) -
Silva Stephanie P. da,
Lattal Ken A.
Publication year - 2010
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.2010.93-395
Subject(s) - peck (imperial) , reinforcement , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , discrimination learning , color vision , cognitive psychology , social psychology , statistics , communication , artificial intelligence , mathematics , computer science , geometry
The effects of reinforcer magnitude and response requirement on pigeons' say choices in an experimental homologue of human say—do correspondence were assessed in two experiments. The procedure was similar to a conditional discrimination procedure except the pigeons chose both a sample stimulus (the say component) and a comparison stimulus that corresponded to it (the do component). Correspondence was trained on red, green, and white key colors before the duration of food presentations following correspondence on each key color (Experiment 1) and the number of key pecks required as the say response on each key color (Experiment 2) were manipulated in an attempt to influence the initial say response. The frequency of say responses on each key color coincided with programmed changes in the duration of food presentations and the key‐peck requirements assigned to each key color. Correspondence accuracy remained stable in all conditions, even those in which the say responding occurred primarily on two of the three key colors. Implications for human behavior are discussed.