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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1982 Sep;38(2):181–189. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1982.38-181

Autoshaped key pecking maintained by access to a social space.

D B Peele, C B Ferster
PMCID: PMC1347813  PMID: 7130895

Abstract

When four experimentally naive pigeons were exposed to occasional forward pairings of a keylight followed by a doorlight (that signaled access to a large social space), all subjects began to peck the lit key. In a second experiment, where the keylight either preceded the presentation of the doorlight or was presented independently of it, key pecking was maintained only in the former circumstance. The unconditioned stimulus in these experiments--arrival in the social space--did not elicit pecking. Hence, the conditioned response of key pecking and the unconditioned response of entering the social space differed. This demonstration of autoshaping with a social-space unconditioned stimulus argues against a stimulus-substitution account of the findings.

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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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