Overachieving Pigeons: The Justification of Effort Impact on Reward Value

Research in animal and human models suggests that greater reward value is associated with tasks requiring more effort or time to obtain the reward, called the Justification of Effort (JoE). Through a series of two experiments, this study incorporates touchscreen operant chambers to assess the choice preference in a pigeon model. Experiment 1 focuses on physical tasks differentiated between a difficult task (20 pecks to a target) and an easy task (1 peck to a target). After training with the two choice stimuli (correct and incorrect), we begin the critical test. This test assesses the preference between the correct choice after the hard task and after the easy task. Pigeons will be presented with both correct stimuli and asked to choose. The Justification of Effort theory predicts that subjects should prefer the stimulus that followed the hard task over the easy one. Once completed, Experiment 2 will test this same phenomenon except with a cognitively difficult task (perceptually similar stimuli) or a cognitively easy task (perceptually distinct stimuli), rather than the physical task in Experiment 1. Results will follow