Abstract
Study objective : The present study examined whether pigeons could perform 2 kinds of conditional discrimination tasks using the location of a conspecific's response as the discriminative stimulus. Whether pigeons could perform those tasks differentially according to 2 conspecifics was also examined. Procedure : Birds responded in a situation in which the location of pecking by another pigeon (stimulus bird) was the discriminative stimulus for reinforcement. In order to get reinforced, the response bird had to peck the key corresponding to the key that one of the stimulus birds was pecking, whereas, when another stimulus bird was presented, the response bird had to peck the key on the side opposite to the key that the stimulus bird was pecking. Subjects Participants : There were 2 response pigeons, and 3 stimulus pigeons. Measures : Percent of correct choices and number of responses were measured. Results : Response birds could perform 2 kinds of conditional-discrimination tasks using the location of a stimulus bird's pecking as the discriminative stimulus. Also, they were able to perform those tasks differentially, depending on which of 2 birds was the stimulus bird.
