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Related Experiment Videos

Rapid acquisition of preference in concurrent chains.

Randolph C Grace1, Orn Bragason, Anthony P McLean

  • 1University of Canterbury, Department of Psychology, Christchurch, New Zealand. r.grace@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|December 17, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Pigeons rapidly adjust their behavior to changing schedules of reinforcement. Their choices in the initial link of a concurrent-chains procedure quickly adapt to new terminal-link schedules, demonstrating behavioral flexibility.

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral science
  • Animal cognition
  • Operant conditioning

Background:

  • Concurrent-chains procedures are used to study choice behavior.
  • Understanding how animals adapt to changing reinforcement schedules is crucial for behavioral science.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate pigeons' response allocation in a concurrent-chains procedure with a fixed terminal-link schedule and a variable alternative schedule.
  • To determine the sensitivity of pigeons' initial-link responding to changes in terminal-link schedules.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments utilized a concurrent-chains procedure with pigeons.
  • Experiment 1: A fixed-interval 8 s schedule was paired with a variable alternative schedule (4–16 s).
  • Experiment 2: A unique alternative schedule delay (2–32 s) was used daily, with sensitivity analyzed over 61 sessions.

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Main Results:

  • Pigeons' initial-link response allocation was primarily influenced by the current session's schedules, with some effect of prior history.
  • Sensitivity to schedule changes was lower than in steady-state research but remained consistent across sessions in Experiment 2.
  • Response allocation was more sensitive when the alternative schedule delay exceeded 8 s compared to when it was less than 8 s.

Conclusions:

  • Pigeons demonstrate rapid adjustment of initial-link response allocation to frequently changing terminal-link schedules.
  • Categorical discrimination may play a role in pigeons' response allocation under these conditions.
  • Behavioral flexibility in pigeons allows for quick adaptation to dynamic reinforcement environments.