Chapter 7. Learning
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Welcome
Welcome to your Try This! research experience for Chapter 7. As you learned in the chapter, this activity will test your skill in teaching an animal to learn through operant conditioning.
In this task, you will be presented with a pigeon in a box, just like the one below. On one of the walls of that box is a disk that the pigeon can peck. Your job is to reward or reinforce its pecking by releasing a food pellet. As you release the pellets, try to figure out how to increase the pigeon’s rate of pecking. As you release the pellets, try to figure out how to increase the pigeon’s rate of pecking.
7.3 Slide 3
At intervals of 30 seconds, a graph will record how often the pigeon pecks, relative to how often you release a food pellet. This will be expressed as a fraction, so if the pigeon pecked 17 times and you released 7 pellets in that interval, you’ll see “17/7.” Find this fraction in the example below.
You may release the food pellets as frequently as you want. You’ll be given six 30-second intervals to try to increase your pecking score. When you’re ready, click “start” to advance to the next screen and begin!
7.4 Slide 4
7.5 Slide 5
All finished! Take a look at the rate of pecking by your pigeon. What do you suppose is the “secret” to increasing the frequency of its pecking?
Try the task again, but this time, with a small change: On the first three intervals, release a pellet every time the pigeon pecks the disk. On the last three trials, vary how many times the pigeon has to peck before you release a pellet. For example, release it after two pecks, then seven pecks, then one peck, etc.
7.6 Slide 6
7.7 Slide 7
All finished!
How did the rate of pecking change from the first three intervals, when you released a pellet after every peck, to the last three intervals, when you varied the release of the pellets?
As you return to the chapter on learning, ask yourself, “What schedule of reinforcement characterized the first three intervals vs. the last three intervals?”