Me too, pigeon.
Peck peck peck peck peck.
TL;DR…?
evidence from a single study suggests pigeons may not be wired to repeat behaviors that have rewarded them previously, instead opting to try new behaviors
takeaway: pigeons are wild in the sack
Thank you!
And IMO that would be an exceedingly strange takeaway as I see it in general, pigeons being some classic Pavlovian-exhibiting animals as it were. So then, perhaps what’s being suggested here is that they’re more exploratory and exhibit much more free will and unpredictability than previously imagined…?Or something like that?
Something like that. I think the study wasn’t designed/interpreted well to demonstrate variable behavior.
They presented the pigeons with 5 differently colored buttons. 5 button presses of any color in any order would dispense a food reward.
The pigeons continued to press random buttons and get their food. The researchers argued that since the pigeons didn’t press the same sequence every time, or the same button 5 times in a row, that this demonstrates they prefer to try new behaviors rather than stick with ones they know result in a reward.
I think they might be giving the pigeons too much credit, intelligence-wise… but I’m kind of a pigeon hater so I’m severely biased lol
Did they have a control group where the colors did matter? If there was never a condition of it mattering, why would anyone vary the presses, unless they just liked pressing red a lot, or the easier to reach buttons, or something else. Seems like an experiment that had already determined the result.
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5 button presses of any color in any order would dispense a food reward.
With rules like that, I don’t understand why you would expect the pigeons to repeat the same sequence. Of course, this is yet another study that shouldn’t have even made it through peer review.
But if theres no wrong answer why would they
Yeah maybe they were wondering if they could get something better to happen and there was no cost in just pushing random buttons so why not
Also wouldn’t that mean that pigeons wouldn’t be trainable with treats?
I have a friend who trains WILD pigeons with food, so… doubt
Trains wild pigeons where?
Around Wellington CBD. It’s not just her, it’s a thing people do
Thank you for pigeon training videos. You knew exactly why I asked LOL
Yeah it seems that probably pigeons didn’t know what worked or didn’t work and since they never got a wrong answer after 5 button pushes, nothing mattered. Did they push the buttons faster?
Or in layman’s terms, pigeons are completely stupid.
Unless they just find pushing the different buttons more fun than pushing the same button 5 times. “haha buttons go brrrrrr”
The prisoner experiment, the marshmallow test, now the pigeon experiments of the Skinner Box. Which psychology experiment will stand the test of time?
The original paper is also open access and a fairly accessible read! https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-47688-001
Same
sounds like they’ve mastered…
pigeon pulls out a gun
Oh no!
All right
Chili dogs!
based pigeons
“You could argue the birds are just utterly resistant to locking into anything stable.”
Or that pigeons are utterly stupid.
Pigeons are actually fairly intelligent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_intelligence
