Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

691
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...
691
Observational Learning01:12

Observational Learning

1.5K
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...
1.5K
Associative Learning01:27

Associative Learning

2.1K
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...
2.1K
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory01:26

Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

2.2K
Memory is one of the most vital higher mental functions of the brain. Memory is closely related to learning because it enables us to retain information and experiences from our past to use them in our present life. It also helps us to remember facts, events, and skills, such as riding a bike or swimming. There are two types of memory — declarative memory, which involves memorizing facts or events, and procedural memory, which enables us to remember how to do something like writing or...
2.2K
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

1.6K
Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
1.6K
Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction01:24

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

2.1K
Generalization, discrimination, and extinction are key concepts in operant conditioning that influence how behaviors are learned and maintained.
Generalization occurs when a behavior reinforced in one context is performed in similar situations. For instance, a student who studies diligently for calculus and receives excellent grades might apply the same study habits to psychology and history, expecting similar results. Generalization shows how learning in one setting can influence behavior in...
2.1K

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

A psychological-scaling approach to unraveling the nature of Pigeons' categorization of natural visual objects.

Psychological review·2026
Same author

Nonnumerical stimuli exert surprisingly strong behavioral control in an unconstrained numerical discrimination learning task.

Cognition·2026
Same author

EVApeCognition: An 18-Year Dataset of Great Ape Cognition.

Scientific data·2026
Same author

Variability, stability, and the law of effect.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition·2026
Same author

Decoupling Design from Darwinian and Skinnerian Selection.

Perspectives on behavior science·2026
Same author

Comparing Geometric Shape Representations in Humans and Baboons: A Language of Thought Perspective.

Topics in cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Rank and payoff biases influence subject choices in a foraging task among sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Animal cognition·2026
Same journal

Buzzed but not elated? Effect of ethanol on cognitive judgement bias in honeybees.

Animal cognition·2026
Same journal

Dogs tuned to conspecific vocalizations: behavioral evidence for a voice processing preference.

Animal cognition·2026
Same journal

Variation in song structure does not predict associative learning performance in zebra finches (Taeniopygia castanotis) raised under controlled cultural conditions.

Animal cognition·2026
Same journal

Executive functioning in wild guppies: investigating the impact of a pharmaceutical pollutant.

Animal cognition·2026
Same journal

Performance of sheep and goats in a delay of gratification task.

Animal cognition·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
11:20

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

Published on: June 2, 2014

11.4K

Object-specific and relational learning in pigeons.

Leyre Castro1, Edward A Wasserman, Joël Fagot

  • 1Department of Psychology, The University of Iowa, E11 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA, leyre-castroruiz@uiowa.edu.

Animal Cognition
|August 6, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Pigeons trained with more varied visual stimuli focused more on relational information for categorization. However, object-specific details always influenced their performance, similar to humans.

More Related Videos

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia
06:14

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

Published on: September 7, 2018

6.0K
Appetitive Associative Olfactory Learning in Drosophila Larvae
09:22

Appetitive Associative Olfactory Learning in Drosophila Larvae

Published on: February 18, 2013

18.9K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
11:20

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

Published on: June 2, 2014

11.4K
A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia
06:14

A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

Published on: September 7, 2018

6.0K
Appetitive Associative Olfactory Learning in Drosophila Larvae
09:22

Appetitive Associative Olfactory Learning in Drosophila Larvae

Published on: February 18, 2013

18.9K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Animal Behavior
  • Comparative Cognition

Background:

  • Relational stimulus processing involves understanding relationships between stimuli.
  • Visual categorization tasks can be solved by focusing on object identity or relations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how pigeons process concrete vs. abstract information in visual categorization.
  • To determine the influence of training set variability on attention to object-specific vs. relational information.

Main Methods:

  • Pigeons were trained on visual categorization tasks with varying numbers of object arrays.
  • Two experiments manipulated the variability of training exemplars.

Main Results:

  • Increased training variability led to greater attention to relational information.
  • Object-specific information consistently contributed to categorization, even with high variability.
  • This pattern mirrors findings in human children and adults.

Conclusions:

  • Training set variability modulates attention between object-specific and relational processing in pigeons.
  • The influence of concrete object details on categorization is robust across species and development.