Role of reinforcement in spaced-trial operant learning in pigeons (Columba livia).

Abstract

The author designed 3 experiments to study pigeons' adjustment to unexpected shifts in reinforcer magnitude with a single trial per day. Extinction was faster or poorer after training with a small magnitude (1 food pellet) than after training with a large magnitude (10 or 15 pellets). A shift from IS to 1 pellet was accompanied by a gradual adjustment, with no indication of a successive negative contrast effect. Pigeons discriminated the reinforcer magnitudes but yielded no evidence of spaced-trial simultaneous negative contrast. Moreover, extinction was faster for a stimulus paired with 1 pellet than for a stimulus paired with 15 pellets. The results can be interpreted in terms of simple strengthening-weakening learning rules and without reference to anticipatory frustration. The acquisition and extinction of simple instrumental responses is affected by variables such as the magnitude and probability of reinforcement in a variety of vertebrate species. However, when training is administered on a spaced-trial basis (i.e., a single trial per day, with intertrial intervals of 24 hr or longer), the generality of some of these

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