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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

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

Response variability in pigeons in a Pavlovian task.

W David Stahlman¹, Michael E Young, Aaron P Blaisdell

¹Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1563, USA.

Learning & Behavior

|April 20, 2010

Summary

Pigeons showed more variable pecking behavior when food rewards were less probable. This suggests that response variability increases as the expectation of reward decreases, even in Pavlovian conditioning.

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Area of Science:

Behavioral neuroscience
Animal behavior
Cognitive psychology

Background:

Instrumental response variation is theorized to be inversely related to reward probability.
Behavioral rules may assist in discovering alternative actions when rewards are unlikely.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if response variability is affected in a Pavlovian autoshaping procedure.
To extend the rule relating variability and expectation to a Pavlovian situation.

Main Methods:

Six pigeons were trained using a within-subjects Pavlovian autoshaping procedure.
Pigeons were presented with colored discs associated with varying probabilities of food delivery (100% to 0.6%).

Main Results:

Pecking behavior was observed to be more variable when food probabilities were low.
This finding supports the inverse relationship between instrumental response variation and reward probability.

Conclusions:

Response variability in pigeons is influenced by reward probability in a Pavlovian context.
Behavioral variability may serve as a mechanism for exploring alternative actions when outcomes are uncertain.