Extensive training is insufficient to produce the work-ethic effect in pigeons.
Zentall and Singer (2007a) hypothesized that our failure to replicate the work-ethic effect in pigeons (Vasconcelos, Urcuioli, & Lionello-DeNolf, 2007) was due to insufficient overtraining following acquisition of the high- and low-effort discriminations. We tested this hypothesis using the original work-ethic procedure (Experiment 1) and one similar to that used with starlings (Experiment 2) by providing at least 60 overtraining sessions. Despite this extensive overtraining, neither experiment revealed a significant preference for stimuli obtained after high effort. Together with other findings, these data support our contention that pigeons do not reliably show a work-ethic effect.
Vasconcelos
Marco
M
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA. marcov@psych.purdue.edu
Urcuioli
Peter J
PJ
D000818:Animals; D010856:Columbidae; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D007858:Learning; D012919:Social Behavior