Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Purposive Learning

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

Observational Learning

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning because...

Associative Learning

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...

Genetic Lingo

Genetic Lingo

Air-entraining Agents

Air-entraining Agents

Air-entraining agents improve the durability and workability of concrete in climates with frequent freezing and thawing. These agents prevent cracks by introducing small air bubbles into the mix, creating spaces accommodating water expansion when temperatures drop. The air-entraining agents lower the surface tension of water, forming stable, small air bubbles. This method is more effective than having accidental large voids, as the intentional, smaller, and evenly distributed air voids improve...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Don't let the pigeon chair the search committee: Pigeons (Columba livia) match humans' (Homo sapiens) suboptimal approach to the secretary problem.

Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)·2021

Same author

Shaping changes everything: Comments on Baum, Killeen, Machado & Vasconcelos, and Pitts.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2021

Same author

Molecular (moment-to-moment) and molar (aggregate) analyses of behavior.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2020

Same author

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia).

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE·2018

Same author

Pigeons (Columba livia) show change blindness in a color-change detection task.

Animal cognition·2017

Same author

Toward the Unification of Molecular and Molar Analyses.

The Behavior analyst·2016

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Artificial grammar learning in pigeons.

Walter T Herbranson¹, Charles P Shimp

¹Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, USA.

Learning & Behavior

|June 12, 2008

Summary

Pigeons can learn complex rules governing letter sequences from artificial grammars. Their performance indicates learning relies on both short string patterns and more intricate sequential regularities.

Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Animal behavior
Computational linguistics

Background:

Artificial grammars provide a framework for studying rule-based learning.
Understanding complex stimulus control is crucial for cognitive theories.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and validate a new methodology for assessing complex stimulus control using artificial grammars.
To investigate how pigeons learn and respond to grammatical and non-grammatical letter strings.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted using pigeons as subjects.
Pigeons were trained to discriminate between strings generated by artificial grammars and non-grammatical distortions.
Performance was analyzed to identify the basis of stimulus control.

More Related Videos

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Published on: June 2, 2014

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

Published on: September 7, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Published on: June 2, 2014

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

Published on: September 7, 2018

Main Results:

Pigeons successfully learned to differentiate grammatical from non-grammatical strings in Experiment 1.
Performance was influenced by both short, shared string elements (chunks) and complex sequential patterns.
In Experiment 2, pigeons rapidly distinguished between strings from two different artificial grammars, again showing control by chunks and sequential regularities.

Conclusions:

The findings support the role of both local (chunk) and global (sequential) information in complex rule learning.
The results suggest a 'family resemblance' basis for stimulus control, where multiple shared features contribute to categorization.
This study offers new directions for developing theories of complex stimulus control in cognitive systems.