Autoshaped key pecking maintained by access to a social space

Area of Science:

• Behavioral psychology
• Animal cognition
• Learning theory

Background:

• Autoshaping, a form of associative learning, typically involves pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Previous studies have primarily used food or water as unconditioned stimuli.
• The role of social stimuli in autoshaping remains less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate autoshaping in pigeons using access to a social space as the unconditioned stimulus.
• To determine if key pecking, a conditioned response, differs from the unconditioned response of entering the social space.
• To test the validity of the stimulus-substitution account in this context.

Main Methods:

• Four experimentally naive pigeons were exposed to forward pairings of a keylight and a doorlight signaling social access.
• A second experiment varied the temporal relationship between the keylight and the doorlight.
• Behavioral responses, specifically key pecking and social space entry, were recorded.

Main Results:

• All pigeons developed key pecking when the keylight reliably predicted access to the social space.
• Key pecking was maintained only when the keylight preceded the social space signal.
• Pigeons did not peck the keylight when it was presented independently of the social space signal.
• Entering the social space, the unconditioned response, was not elicited by pecking the keylight.

Conclusions:

• Autoshaping can be demonstrated with a social-space unconditioned stimulus.
• The conditioned response (key pecking) and unconditioned response (social space entry) were distinct.
• These findings provide evidence against a simple stimulus-substitution explanation for autoshaping in this paradigm.