you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 22 points 4 months ago (16 children)

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

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 16 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    With rules like that I would expect people to split onto two groups: ones that learn one pattern and repeat it because it's a guaranteed result, and one that tries to find a counterexample to the rule they thought of at first. The fact that pigeons try different patterns kind of makes them more clever in my eyes.

    But it's known that pigeons perform better than humans in Monty Hall problem, so they are really pretty smart when it comes to statistics, it seems

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago*

    Well, it does tend to happen with rats/monkeys/people.

    If 5 buttons all work the same way, you just hit whichever one is closest or whatever, over and over again. You spam it, hit it as fast as you can.

    I can wake up my computer by hitting any key, I have something like 50 keys to choose from, I click the mouse every time.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    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

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Thank you for pigeon training videos. You knew exactly why I asked LOL

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments