Comparative effects of food and water deprivation on movement patterns in the pigeon (Columba Livia)

Abstract

Groups of naive pigeons were either food or water deprived and exposed to response-independent fixed time schedules of reinforcement. Reinforcers were always appropriate to the deprivation state. After 15 Phase One sessions under the original deprivation state, an additional 15 Phase Two sessions were run under the alternate deprivation regimen. The Phase One results indicated that the frequency of movement over time, as measured by floorboard panels, had a characteristic distribution depending on deprivation state. After state-switch in Phase Two, both groups exhibited changes in frequency distribution over time, but the new distributions were different from those produced in subjects without any deprivation history. There appeared to be sustained effects on movement patterns due to prior exposure to alternate deprivation and periodic feeding regiments, results which confirm earlier experimental work. The findings are discussed in light of research on the effect of prior response-independent schedule training, the matching law, and the effects of contextual conditioning.