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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1985 Jul;44(1):121–125. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1985.44-121

Amount consumed varies as a function of feeder design.

R Epstein
PMCID: PMC1348166  PMID: 4045375

Abstract

Studies of pigeon behavior in which magazine-cycle duration is varied suggest that many researchers assume that feeders of different designs dispense food at roughly the same rate. However, Epstein (1981) showed that, with a commonly used feeder, the amount of grain a pigeon consumes is a negatively accelerated function of magazine-cycle duration. The present experiment shows that, with a different commonly used feeder, amount consumed is roughly a linear function of magazine-cycle duration. At a duration of 60 seconds, the second feeder dispenses roughly 10 times as much food as the first. Thus, reports of studies in which magazine-cycle duration is varied should identify the design of the feeder employed, and in some cases, authors should consider determining the feeding functions for those feeders.

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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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