In laboratory experiments, pigeons were required to work to gain access to food. The work was divided into two components. The first component required the pigeon to press on a foot treadle to turn on a patch stimulus and, thus, enter a patch. In the patch the pigeon had to search for individual food items by pressing on a second treadle. High- and low-value items were available. Cost refers to the number of treadle presses required to enter a patch (entry cost) or to produce a food item (search cost). When entry cost was increased (Experiments 1 and 2) pigeons entered fewer patches but produced more trials in each, and the rate of eating increased. Entry cost affected reactivity to food items only on the first trial of a patch. The pigeons accepted few of the low-value items when search cost was low, but became less selective as search cost was increased (Experiments 3 and 4). However, changes in reactivity to the food items and the rate of eating were confined to patches in which the search cost was increased. Experiment 5 determined that the signalling function of food-stimuli was not altered by search cost. Experiment 6 found that the patch-stimuli encoded information about the search cost. The primary finding in these experiments was that much of the feeding behavior of pigeons is controlled by the local cost of obtaining a food item rather than on an average cost computed over several items or patches. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: B, page: 3247. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75662 |
| Contributors | O'CONNELL, JEFFREY MICHAEL., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 153 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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