Behavioral variability and frequency-dependent selection

In Experiment 1, two conditions were compared: (a) a variability schedule in which food reinforcement was delivered for the fourth peck in a sequence that differed from the preceding N four-peck sequences, with the value of N continuously adjusted to maintain reinforcement probability approximately constant; and (b) a control condition in which the variability constraint was dropped but reinforcement probability remained constant. Pigeons responded approximately randomly under the variability schedule but showed strong stereotyped behavior under the control condition. Experiments 2 and 3 tested the idea that variability is the outcome of a type of frequency-dependent selection, namely differential reinforcement of infrequent behavior patterns. The results showed that pigeons alternate when frequency-dependent selection is applied to single pecks because alternation is an easy-to-learn stable pattern that satisfies the frequency-dependent condition. Nevertheless, 2 of 4 pigeons showed random behavior when frequency-dependent selection was applied to two pecks, even though double alternation is a permissible and stable stereotype under these conditions. It appears that random behavior results when pigeons are unable to acquire the stable stereotyped behavior under a given frequency-dependent schedule.