Skinner: Pigeons in a Pelican

Question 1

ORCON

Answer 1

“Organic Control”

The title of the program for training animals to guide missiles

Described as “project pigeon”

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

Pigeons were trained to peck at a screen on a specified target to get food

The tracking behavior of the pigeon was analyzed with methods similar to those employed with human operators

Pattern perception was studied, including generalization from one pattern to another

Question 3

Takeaway

Answer 3

The practical task created a new attitude toward the behavior of organisms

The training required an emphasis on rigorous experiment control, and not the “laziness” of hypothetical processes and intervening variables

Continued research yields unexpected unknown and continuing benefits, such as the ability to train lower organisms, discovering color vision and pigeons etc.