Pigeons' preferences for stimulus information: effects of amount of information

A concurrent-chain procedure was used to study pigeons' preferences as a function of amount of information. Pigeons chose between two terminal links. Both terminal links ended in food reinforcement with probability (p) and in blackout with probability (1-p). One terminal link (noninformative link) was signalled by a stimulus uncorrelated with either food or blackout. The other terminal link (informative link) was signalled by stimuli correlated with these outcomes. Amount of information conveyed by these stimuli was varied across conditions by changing the probability of reinforcement (p) and blackout (1-p). The pigeons strongly preferred the informative link, and preferences were greater at p values above 0.50 than for their complements. The pigeons engaged in different behaviors during the stimulus periods, suggesting that the value of informative stimuli may be in their function as discriminative stimuli for interim activities and terminal responses.