Spaced-trail Operant Learning with Purely Instrumental Contingencies in Pigeons (Columba Livia)

The purpose of this experiment was to study persistence during extinction of key pecking performance in pigeons (Columba livia) after training with either a large (15 food pellets) or a small reward magnitude (1 food pellet). Strictly instrumental contingencies were enforced and a single trial per daily session was administered. There were 52 acquisition trials followed by 48 extinction trials. Although extinction started from similar response levels in both groups, the pigeons trained with 15 pellets exhibited significantly slower extinction than those trained with a single pellet. This result is discussed in the context of comparative research on the effects of reward magnitude and schedule on extinction in vertebrates. &nbsp