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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1968 Sep;11(5):629–632. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1968.11-629

Avoidance responding in pigeons1

Euan M Macphail
PMCID: PMC1338538  PMID: 5722428

Abstract

Four pigeons were trained in a one-way shuttle box avoidance situation. Three of the birds met the criterion of 90% avoidances; the fourth, although frequently avoiding successfully, was too erratic to meet the criterion. Avoidance responding in two of the birds was subsequently extinguished, showing that the response was true avoidance, and not escape from the buzzer warning stimulus. In Experiment 2, the three birds that had met criterion in Experiment 1 were trained in a two-way avoidance task, and all three met the criterion of 90% avoidances. The shuttle box therefore provides a rapid and reliable method of obtaining avoidance performance in pigeons.

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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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