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Conjunctive differentiation of gape during food-reinforced keypecking in the pigeon |
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| Authors: | James D Deich Robert W Allan H Philip Zeigler |
| Institution: | 1. Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, New York 2. Department of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 07940, Madison, NJ 3. Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, New York 4. American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York |
| Abstract: | The pigeon’s keypecking response includes both a head-transport (peck) and a jaw-movement (gape) component. Because the two components are mediated by different effector systems, they may potentially be viewed as orthogonal responses. A response differentiation procedure was used to bring gape amplitude under operant control. The procedure employed a conjunctive response requirement in which reinforcement was contingent upon both gaping and key contact. The key-contact requirement was held constant, while the gape contingency was systematically varied to reinforce either decreases or increases in gape amplitude with respect to baseline. The procedure was effective in shifting the gape distributions in both the upward and downward directions and in inducing new gape values that deviated from the baseline in the reinforced direction. These observations indicate that gape may be brought under operant control. However, subjects showed a bias in the differentiation of the gape response, such that larger gapes were more readily differentiated than smaller gapes. The results are discussed in relation to the methodological utility of the paradigm, the problem of biological constraints on learning, and the heuristic utility of a response components analysis. |
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