DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF ATTACK IN PIGEONS DURING VARIABLE‐INTERVAL REINFORCEMENT OF KEY PECKING 1

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The relation between food deprivation and schedule-induced attack was investigated in four White Carneaux pigeons. Attack toward a mirror target was induced by a schedule of reinforcement in which 3-sec food presentations occurred at alternate intervals of 15 and 120 sec (multiple fixed-time 15-sec fixed-time 120-sec schedule). A continuous tone was presented during the 15-sec periods; it was absent during the 120-sec periods. Each pigeon was tested at 65, 80, and 95% of its free-feeding weight in ascending, descending, and ascending orders, respectively. Two relations were apparent; an inverse relation between body weight and rate of attack, and a tendency for rate of attack to increase during the experiment. Reduction or elimination of attack when the mirror was covered with brown paper for some sessions indicated that the results were due neither to changes in activity that might covary with weight nor to habituation to the experimental situation.Key words: attack, deprivation, schedule induced, mirror pecking, pigeonPain-elicited attack occurs when a noxious stimulus, such as an electric shock or a physical blow (e.g. Azrin, Hake, and Hutchinson, 1965;Ulrich and Azrin, 1962) is presented. Schedule-induced attack occurs during certain schedules of food presentation when an appropriate target is present (e.g. Azrin, Hutchinson, and Hake, 1966;Gentry, 1968). Both types of attack have been described in terms of physical contacts, such as biting by rats (Ulrich and Azrin, 1962) and monkeys (Azrin, Hutchinson, and Sallery, 1964;Hutchinson, Azrin, and Hake, 1966), and charging, pecking, and feather pulling by pigeons Cherek, Thompson, and Heistad, 1972;Dove, Rashotte, and Katz, 1974; Flory, 1969a Flory, , 1969bGentry, 1968 less frequently in satiated pigeons than in pigeons maintained at 80% of their freefeeding weights. Other investigations have shown that food deprivation affects the level of attack when attack is elicited by electric shock. For example, the probability of attack following shock is higher in deprived as compared to nondeprived rats (Cahoon, Crosby, Dunn, Herrin, Hill, and McGinnis, 1971). With respect to schedule-induced attack, responding that is maintained by the opportunity to attack decreases as deprivation level decreases from 85 to 100% free-feeding weight (Cherek et al., 1972). They noted that rate of attack showed changes similar to rate of responding to produce a live target pigeon, but the exact relation between schedule-induced attack and deprivation remains unclear, because in their study target availability as well as attack itself varied as a function of deprivation.The present study investigated the relation between deprivation and mean rate and variability of schedule-induced attack. A mirror mounted in conjunction with four microswitches served as the target. Such an arrangement was used previously in the context of multiple fixed-ratio fixed-ratio schedules, and responding on the mirror was functionally and topograplhically similar to responding that results when a live or st...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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RELATION BETWEEN LEVEL OF FOOD DEPRIVATION AND RATE OF SCHEDULE‐INDUCED ATTACK¹

Dove

1976

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“…Attack, when it occurs, is primarily a post-reinforcement phenomenon. Schedule-induced aggression has been studied during fixed-ratio schedules (Cherek and Pickens, 1970;Cohen and Looney, 1973;Flory, 1969a;Gentry, 1968; Hutchinson, Azrin, and Hunt, 1968;Knutson, 1970;Lyon and Turner, 1972), fixed-interval schedules (Cherek and Heistad, 1971;DeWeese, Webbe, and Malagodi, 1972;Richards and Rilling, 1972), response-independent fixed-time schedules (Flory, 1969b), variable-interval schedules (Dove, Rashotte, and Katz, 1974), and differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules (Knutson and Kleinknecht, 1970 Studies of induced aggression during fixedratio schedules may be summarized in terms of the following characteristics. First, some results suggest that attack behavior varies as a direct function of the parameter value (Flory, 1969a;Hutchinson et al, 1968;Knutson, 1970;Lyon and Turner, 1972).…”

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INDUCED ATTACK DURING MULTIPLE FIXED‐RATIO, VARIABLE‐RATIO SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT¹

Webbe

DeWeese

Malagodi

1974

Two pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule of reinforcement: in the presence of one discriminative stimulus, key pecks produced grain according to a fixed-ratio schedule; in the presence of a second discriminative stimulus, key pecks produced grain according to a variable-ratio schedule. The key-peck requiremiients in the two components were increased in successive stages from 50 to 125 responses. Live target pigeons were restrained at the rear of the chamber. Attacks against the targets were automatically recorded, and a variety of measures of attack behavior were taken. Attacks, when they occurred, always followed grain presentation. All measures revealed higher levels of attack during the fixed-ratio component at all parameter values. All measures generally increased with increases in fixed-ratio values with both birds, and with increases in variable-ratio values with one bird. With the other bird, only the per cent of reinforcements followed by attack increased with increases in variable-ratio value; all other nmeasures first increased and then decreased. In experiments on schedule-induced aggression, positive reinforcement is usually dependent upon operant responding (e.g., key pecking), and a target is available. Under some schedule parameters, animals will attack either restrained animals of the same species or a variety of inanimate objects. Attack, when it occurs, is primarily a post-reinforcement phenomenon. Schedule-induced aggression has been studied during fixed-ratio schedules

“…Attempts to provide objective descriptions of the vocalizations of pigeons have employed the symbols of dictionary pronunciation (e.g., Goodwin, 1956a), musical notation (e.g., Craig, 1911), and mnemonic phrases (e.g., Fabricius and Jansson, 1963;Levi, 1963, p. 376 (Thorpe and Lade, 1961), and are employed in the present paper to present an objective description of two distinct vocalizations heard repeatedly during experiments on scheduleinduced aggression in this laboratory (e.g., Dove, Rashotte, and Katz, 1974;Rashotte, Dove, and Looney, 1974 An Uher "Royal 10,000" model audio tape recorder with tape speed set at 7.5 ips was used to record vocalizations and to replay them for sound spectrographic analysis. Recordings were made with a Shure Model 566 microphone located behind the wall on which the grain hopper was mounted.…”

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VOCALIZATIONS OF WHITE CARNEAUX PIGEONS DURING EXPERIMENTS ON SCHEDULE‐INDUCED AGGRESSION¹

Rashotte

Katz

Griffin

et al. 1975

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In most experiments on schedule-induced aggression, contacts between pigeons are automatically detected by the closure of a switch mounted on the target-pigeon's restraining device (e.g., Azrin, Hutchinson, and Hake, 1966). The validity of switch closures as a measure of aggression usually is supported by descriptions of the complex behavioral matrix in which the switch closures occur. Azrin et al. (1966) provided the first description and it has been frequently cited (e.g., Gentry, 1968) as representative of the behavior observed in succeeding experiments:Visual observation revealed that attack consisted of strong pecks at the throat and head of the target bird, especially around the eyes. The feathers of the target bird were often pulled out and the skin bruised. The attack was often preceded by a brief period of pacing in front of the