Serial pattern learning: Pigeons (Columba livia) prefer an improving schedule over an initially easier fixed ratio schedule.

Abstract

Serial pattern learning describes behavior in which a subject anticipates not only the time and effort needed for the next reinforcer but also the pattern of time and effort to reinforcers after the first. Chandel et al. (2021) found that pigeons left a progressive (increasing ratio) schedule earlier than would have been optimal. They argued that the pigeons anticipated the harder-to-obtain reinforcers beyond the next one. In the present experiments, pigeons were trained on a progressive schedule for which each reinforcer was successively easier to obtain. However, the initial choice was between a fixed ratio schedule (FR23) for which a reinforcer was easier to obtain than the first reinforcer on the improving progressive schedule (32 pecks). Delayed discounting theory suggests that the pigeons would prefer the FR23 because more immediate reinforcers should be preferred, whereas serial pattern learning suggests that the progressive schedule might be preferred because easier-to-obtain reinforcers would follow the initially harder 32 pecks. In Experiment 1, a preference for the fixed ratio schedule was not found, however, in Experiment 2, when the two alternatives were equated for the number of reinforcers that could be obtained on each trial, a significant preference for the improving progressive schedule was found. The results of Experiment 2 were consistent with the serial pattern learning hypothesis. The pigeons did not choose the more immediate reinforcer associated with fixed ratio alternative. Rather, they showed a preference for the improving progressive schedule for which later reinforcers would be easier to obtain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).