Abstract
Macphail (1985) proposed that “intelligence” should not vary across vertebrate species when contextual variables are accounted for. Focusing on research involving choice behavior, the propensity for choosing an option that produces stimuli that predict the presence or absence of reinforcement but that also results in less food over time can be examined. This choice preference has been found multiple times in pigeons (Stagner and Zentall, 2010; Zentall and Stagner, 2011; Laude et al., 2014) and has been likened to gambling behavior demonstrated by humans (Zentall, 2014, 2016). The present experiments used a similarly structured task to examine adult human preferences for reinforcement predictors and compared findings to choice behavior demonstrated by children (Lalli et al., 2000), monkeys (Smith et al., 2017; Smith and Beran, 2020), dogs (Jackson et al., 2020), rats (Chow et al., 2017; Cunningham and Shahan, 2019; Jackson et al., 2020), and pigeons (Roper and Zentall, 1999; Stagner and Zentall, 2010). In Experiment 1, adult human participants showed no preference for reinforcement predictors. Results from Experiment 2 suggest that not only were reinforcement predictors not preferred, but that perhaps reinforcement predictors had no effect at all on choice behavior. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 were further assessed using a generalized matching equation, the findings from which support that adult human choice behavior in the present research was largely determined by reinforcement history. Overall, the present results obtained from human adult participants are different than those found from pigeons in particular, suggesting that further examination of Macphail (1985) hypothesis is warranted.
Highlights
Macphail (1985) argued that comparative psychologists should adopt the assumption of general processes of learning
The preference of participants in the No Terminal Stimulus condition was compared to the preference of new participants run in the Experimental and Control conditions
Perhaps most interesting is that reinforcement predictors seemed to play no role in adult human choice behavior within the scope of this task, which is different than what has been found in pigeons (Stagner and Zentall, 2010)
Summary
Macphail (1985) argued that comparative psychologists should adopt the assumption of general processes of learning. Despite the common notion that learning capacities vary between species and that species may be ranked by these capacities, the null hypothesis in the comparison of behavioral traits across species must be that there are no differences. According to Macphail, the failure to convincingly rule out the null hypothesis was due to an absence. Obtained Reinforcers Not Reinforcement Predictors of systematic replications to rule out contextual variables (e.g., motivating operations, stimulus characteristics, etc.). Macphail stated, requires any apparent differences must first be ascribed to contextual variables. We reviewed selected systematic replications of choice behavior in human and nonhuman animals and presented two experiments with human participants to test Macphail’s Null Hypothesis, which stated that there should be no cross-species differences in general learning processes What if humans were tested in procedures that were analogous to those applied to non-humans? Here we reviewed selected systematic replications of choice behavior in human and nonhuman animals and presented two experiments with human participants to test Macphail’s Null Hypothesis, which stated that there should be no cross-species differences in general learning processes
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