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Aversive Second-Order Conditioning in the Pigeon

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Abstract

Second-order conditioned suppression of keypecking was demonstrated in pigeons by pairing a tone (CS2) and an on-key stimulus (CS1) after the on-key stimulus had been paired with electric shock (US). Suppression of keypecking during CS2 was significantly greater for subjects in this group than for subjects in control groups that received either (a) pairings of CS1 and US but “truly random” presentations of CS2 and CS1 or (b) pairings of CS2 and CS1 but “truly random” presentations of CS1 and US.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523, USA

    W. M. Hittesdorf & Ralph W. Richards

Authors
  1. W. M. Hittesdorf
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  2. Ralph W. Richards
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Additional information

This research was supported in part by a BRSG grant (NIH) to Colorado State University. The authors would like to thank the Graduate School at Colorado State University for additional financial support. This experiment, which was conducted by the first author under the supervision of the second author, represents a thesis submitted as partial fulfillment of requirements for an M.S. degree at Colorado State University. The results of this research were presented at the 1978 convention of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association in Denver, Colorado.

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Hittesdorf, W.M., Richards, R.W. Aversive Second-Order Conditioning in the Pigeon. Psychol Rec 28, 605–613 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394578

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