Some Effects of Unconditional Reinforcement in the Pigeon

Abstract

<p>Reliable acquisition of the pigeon's key-peck and development of observing responses (defined as any response which exposes an organism to discriminative stimuli) resulted after repeated unconditional (response independent) presentations of food after a response key was momentarily illuminated. Comparison groups showed that the acquisition of key-pecking was dependent upon light-food pairings, in that order. When compared with hand-shaping, the present method saves time and labor and produces the key-peck with surprising regularity. A technique for the measurement of observing responses in the same situation was developed. Use of the technique revealed that observing responses developed prior to key-pecking and both forms of behavior were maintained despite the absence of differential reinforcement. Pigeons preferred to view a stimulus which predicted that reinforcement was forthcoming rather than a similar non-informative stimulus. The simplicity of implementation and rapidity with which results may be gathered, recommend this technique for further investigation of the features which support observing responses.</p>