Immediate reinforcement in delayed reward learning in pigeons.

Pigeons were trained on simultaneous red-green discrimination procedures with delayed reward and sequences of stimuli during the delay. In Experiment 1, three stimuli appeared during the 60-second intervals between the correct responses and reward, and the incorrect responses and nonreward. The stimulus that immediately followed a correct response also preceded nonreward, and the stimulus that followed an incorrect response preceded reward. These stimuli were 10 or .33 second in duration for different groups. Stimuli during the remainder of the delay interval differed following correct and incorrect responses. Group 10 initially persisted in the nonrewarded choice, but shifted to a preponderance of rewarded responses after further training. Group .33 rapidly acquired the correct response. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 2 where delay intervals consisted of opposite sequences of two stimuli of equal duration and total delays were 6, 20, or 60 seconds. Early in training, generalization of differential conditioned-reinforcing properties from the conditions preceding reward and nonreward to postchoice conditions had a greater effect relative to backchaining than it did later. It was concluded that delayed-reward learning is best analyzed in terms of the conditioned-reinforcing value of the patterns of cues that follow immediately after rewarded and nonrewarded responses.

Some variables affecting rate of key pecking during response-independent procedures (autoshaping).

Rate of key pecking by pigeons subjected to response-independent procedures in which a stimulus on the response key preceded food presentation was investigated in eight experiments. Color and shape of the stimulus, duration of the stimulus, probability of food following the stimulus, duration of the intertrial interval, and duration of food presentation were varied separately and in combination. All variables studied, except color and shape of the stimulus, had a reliable effect on pecking rate, but some variables had stronger effects than others. Rapid key pecking may be obtained with a variety of response-independent procedures, as well as by response-dependent reinforcement. The results of experiments in which food is both dependent on key pecking and correlated with stimulus conditions are not representative of simple operant effects. Key pecking is an ideal response for studying the simultaneous operation of response-reinforcer and stimulus-reinforcer effects.

The role of autopecking in behavioral contrast.

Four groups of four pigeons each were studied on two different multiple schedules. The cues correlated with the schedule components were localized on the response key for two groups and were not localized for the others. Two groups worked on multiple schedules with variable interval 15-sec in both components, and variable interval 15-sec in one component and extinction in the other. The other two groups had identical procedures except that food was presented on a response-independent variable-time schedule. Variable-interval birds with localized stimuli showed marked behavioral contrast; variable-interval birds with non-localized stimuli showed no behavioral contrast. Variable-time birds with key-light stimuli acquired high rates of autopecking, which changed as treatment changed in a manner that paralleled rate changes, resulting in behavioral contrast for variable-interval birds. Variable-time birds with non-localized stimuli key pecked only at a low rate. The findings indicate that behavioral contrast in pigeons may result from the autopecking that is obtained with stimulus-contingent food presentation.