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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1975 Jul;24(1):89–106. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1975.24-89

Freedom and knowledge: an experimental analysis of preference in pigeons1

A Charles Catania
PMCID: PMC1333385  PMID: 16811866

Abstract

Relative responding in initial links of concurrent-chain schedules showed that pigeons preferred free to forced choices and informative to uninformative stimuli. Variable-interval initial links on two lower keys (white) of a six-key chamber produced terminal links on either two upper-left keys (blue and/or amber) or two upper-right keys (green and/or red). Terminal.links in which pecks on either of two lit keys produced fixed-interval reinforcement (free choice) were preferred to links with only one lit fixed-interval key available (forced choice). Terminal links with different key colors correlated with concurrent fixed-interval reinforcement and extinction (informative stimuli) were preferred to links with these schedules operating on same-color keys (uninformative stimuli). Scheduling extinction for one of the two free-choice keys assessed preference for two lit keys over one lit key, but confounded number with whether stimuli were informative. Fixed-interval reinforcement for both keys in each terminal link, but with different-color keys in one link and same-color keys in the other, showed that preference for informative stimuli did not depend on stimulus variety. Preferences were independent of relative responses per reinforcement and other properties of terminal-link performance.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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