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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 2, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
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Reflexivity in pigeons.

Mary M Sweeney1, Peter J Urcuioli

  • 1Purdue University, Department of Psychological Sciences, 703 Third Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA.

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|May 5, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Pigeons trained on symbolic matching tasks showed an untrained ability to match stimuli to themselves (reflexivity). This finding, demonstrating reflexivity in animals, supports theories of equivalence-class formation.

Keywords:
emergent odditykey peckpigeonsreflexivitystimulus classesstimulus equivalencesuccessive matching

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Animal Behavior
  • Comparative Psychology

Background:

  • Equivalence-class formation is a key concept in understanding learning and cognition.
  • Reflexivity, the ability to match a stimulus to itself, is a predicted component of such formation.
  • Previous research has explored symbolic matching in animals, but direct demonstration of reflexivity is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test a theory predicting reflexivity in pigeons after specific symbolic matching training.
  • To investigate the role of identity versus oddity training in establishing reflexivity.
  • To determine if reflexivity can be demonstrated in pigeons, potentially as a novel finding in animal cognition.

Main Methods:

  • Two groups of pigeons were trained on symbolic successive matching tasks.
  • One group received identity matching, while the other received oddity matching.
  • Probe trials assessed comparison-response rates on novel matching and mismatching sequences.

Main Results:

  • Pigeons trained with identity matching showed higher response rates on matching probes than mismatching probes.
  • This ostensible reflexivity effect was largely absent in pigeons trained with oddity matching.
  • The results partially supported the theoretical predictions regarding reflexivity.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides evidence for an untrained reflexivity effect in pigeons following identity matching training.
  • This finding may represent the first demonstration of reflexivity in any animal species.
  • The results contribute to understanding the mechanisms of equivalence-class formation in non-human animals.