Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Blocking a selective association in pigeons.

S J Weiss1, L V Panlilio

  • 1Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, D.C. 20016, USA. sweiss@american.edu

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|February 24, 1999
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Characterization of intentional lurasidone ingestions using the United States National Poison Data System.

Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.)·2020
Same author

Screening Medications for the Treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder.

International review of neurobiology·2016
Same author

Language disparities in patients transported by emergency medical services.

The American journal of emergency medicine·2015
Same author

Cannabinoid abuse and addiction: Clinical and preclinical findings.

Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics·2015
Same author

Modification of a stimulus-reinforcer interaction by blocking.

Behavioural processes·2014
Same author

The dense core vesicle protein IA-2, but not IA-2β, is required for active avoidance learning.

Neuroscience·2014
Same journal

The Genoeconomics of Impulsive Intertemporal Choice: A Critical Review.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Shaping the extinction burst: Increasing its probability and preventing its emergence across topographies.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Evaluating the combined effects of effort and probability on monetary discounting.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

An improved translational approach to studying persistence-strengthening effects of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations on concurrent food- and water-reinforced responding in mice.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Odor-visual and visual-visual matching to sample with dogs.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
See all related articles

Pigeons show selective learning based on reinforcement type, associating tones with food and lights with shock. This learned association can be blocked by specific pretraining, demonstrating a biological constraint on learning across species.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral neuroscience
  • Comparative psychology
  • Animal learning

Background:

  • Pigeons trained with free-operant multiple schedules of reinforcement exhibit stimulus-reinforcer interactions.
  • Previous research showed selective associations in pigeons, but attempts to block them were unsuccessful.
  • Studies in rats demonstrated successful blocking of selective associations using specific pretraining procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate stimulus-reinforcer interactions in pigeons using free-operant multiple schedules.
  • To determine if selective associations in pigeons can be blocked using procedures effective in rats.
  • To explore the cross-species generality of an associative attentional mechanism with biological constraints.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Pigeons trained with tone-light (TL) compound for food (treadle pressing) or shock (avoidance).

Related Experiment Videos

  • Stimulus-element testing assessed auditory vs. visual stimulus control.
  • Experiment 2: Pigeons pretrained with the biologically disadvantageous element of the compound (tone-food or light-shock) before TL training.

    • Main Results:

    • Experiment 1: Pigeons treadle pressing for food showed visual stimulus control; pigeons avoiding shock showed auditory control.
    • Experiment 2: Pretraining blocked selective association, resulting in auditory control for food-seeking pigeons and visual control for shock-avoiding pigeons.
    • The blocking procedure, effective in rats, was replicated successfully in pigeons.

    Conclusions:

    • Selective stimulus-reinforcer associations in pigeons can be blocked by specific pretraining, contrary to previous findings.
    • Replication of rat procedures confirms their effectiveness in blocking selective associations in pigeons.
    • Results support an associative attentional mechanism influenced by biological constraints, demonstrating cross-species generality.