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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1966 Jul;9(4):443–455. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1966.9-443

Probabilistically reinforced choice behavior in pigeons1

Charles P Shimp
PMCID: PMC1338246  PMID: 5961513

Abstract

A single principle, “momentary maximizing”, may account for much of a pigeon's steady-state behavior in both probability learning and concurrent variable interval experiments. The principle states that a pigeon tends to choose the alternative that momentarily has the higher probability of reinforcement. A successive discrimination procedure, which produced matching in an earlier experiment, produced here a tendency to maximize if training were adequately extended. Maximizing was produced also by other procedures, in which no reinforcing event was presented on some trials: one procedure did and two did not provide a bird with information about the availability of reinforcement on a key after an unreinforced response on the other key. The latter two procedures were analogous to concurrent variable interval schedules in two respects: the reinforcement probability on one key increased while a bird responded on the other key; and they produced matching. But sequential statistics suggested that matching resulted from momentary maximizing. Depending on the procedure, the tendency to maximize produced different relative frequencies of pecking a key for a fixed relative frequency of reinforcement. Computer simulation of maximizing behavior in several concurrent variable interval schedules produced matching and sequential statistics similar to those produced by a real bird.

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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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