Biological contraints

Question 1

Breland & Breland (1961)

Answer 1

Trained pigeons to stand on platform for 15s, and pigs to carry token to deposit coins in piggy bank. Initially = worked, but over time the chickens ‘danced’ and pigs ‘rooted’. In doing this, they were engaging in species specific food-getting behaviour which increased the time until reinforcement. = Misbehaviour.

Question 2

Staddon & Simmelhag (1971)

Answer 2

Presented pigeons with food in hopper every 12s. Pigeons initially engaged in species specific behaviour, but with multiple sessions of training –> behaviour became idiosyncratic. These patterns changed with 1) Training, 2) Time between hopper presentations.
Early in training: variable or head around magazine wall
Late in training: two distinct categories: early – general – late = magazine wall + pecking.
When the time approached before the next food presentation – the pigeons orientated themselves towards food related behaviour.

++ Staddon & Ayres (rats)

Question 3

Payla & Zacny (1980)

Answer 3

Pigeons spot pecking - hypothesised this was food related. Tested this by feeding pigeons at 4pm and measuring pecking behaviour. Pecking was seen to increase in frequency immediately following food presentation (and during). Fed at 4am, and 4pm again, with the same results seen. –> showed spot pecking is occurring as an interaction between what is happening in the current environment and the animals evolutionary history.

Question 4

Reid (1968) Reinstatement:

Answer 4

Rats, pigeons and humans. During training reinforced a response with a reward (food, tokens). Then ran a test under extinction –> no reinforcement for responses. Then in reinstatement testing, presented the reinforcers alone (before any behaviour) –> responses were seen.
=Reversed pairing

Question 5

Seligman (1970)

Answer 5

Prepared vs unprepared learning.

Question 6

Lawicka

Answer 6

Training dogs.
Tone frequency vs location of tone for going down a maze.
Location of tone was an easier stimulus-relation to learn = prepared vs counter prepared frequency.

Question 7

Randall & Zentall

Answer 7

Pigeon win stay bias.
Get food reinforcement from one place = tend to stay = evolutionarily, finding one grain generally leads to more grains in the same area – higher payoff to stay.

Question 8

Sulikowski & Burke

Answer 8

Noisy minor birds.
Insects = win switch behaviour
Nectar=win stay bias