Suboptimal choice in pigeons: Choice is primarily based on the value of the conditioned reinforcer rather than overall reinforcement rate.

Abstract

Pigeons have sometimes shown a preference for a signaled 50% reinforcement alternative (leading half of the time to a stimulus that signaled 100% reinforcement and otherwise to a stimulus that signaled 0% reinforcement) over a 100% reinforcement alternative. We hypothesized that pigeons may actually be indifferent between the 2 alternatives with previous inconsistent preferences resulting in part from an artifact of the use of a spatial discrimination. In the present experiments, we tested the hypothesis that pigeons would be indifferent between alternatives that provide conditioned reinforcers of equal value. In Experiment 1, we used the signaled 50% reinforcement versus 100% reinforcement procedure, but cued the alternatives with shapes that varied in their spatial location from trial to trial. Consistent with the stimulus value hypothesis, the pigeons showed indifference between the alternatives. In Experiment 2, to confirm that the pigeons could discriminate between the shapes, we removed the discriminative function from the 50% reinforcement alternative and found a clear preference for the 100% reinforcement alternative. Finally, in Experiment 3, when we returned the discriminative function to the 50% reinforcement alternative and reduced the 100% reinforcement alternative to 50% reinforcement, we found a clear preference for the discriminative stimulus alternative. These results support the hypothesis that pigeons prefer the alternative with the conditioned reinforcer that best predicts reinforcement, whereas its frequency may be relatively unimportant.

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