Effects of food-pellet size on rate, latency, and topography of autoshaped key pecks and gapes in pigeons

Abstract

Four pigeons responded under autoshaping contingencies in which different conditional stimuli (red or green keylights) were associated with unconditional stimuli of different magnitudes (large or small food pellets) over successive trials within a session. Both topography (beak opening or gape) and strength (rates and latencies of key pecks and gapes) of responding during the conditional stimuli depended on the magnitude of the correlated unconditional stimulus. Key-peck and gape rates were higher and latencies were shorter in large-pellet trials than in small-pellet trials. Gape amplitudes varied directly with pellet size, although conditional and unconditional gapes were larger than either pellet. These findings were replicated when the key colors were presented either on one or two keys and after reversals of the color-size correlations. Because the unconditional stimulus was varied through pellet size, magnitude was not confounded with food-access duration or quality. These results demonstrate the effects of the magnitude of the unconditional stimulus, in that rates and latencies of both key pecks (which are directed movements toward the key) and gapes (which are independent of the bird's position and key properties) varied with pellet size. Gape measures were unique in that two dimensions (response strength and topography) of a single response class varied simultaneously with magnitude.