Preference for free choice over forced choice in pigeons.
Choice itself is a reinforcer, even when the payoff stays the same.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers let pigeons pick between two keys. One key led to a free-choice schedule. The other key led to a forced-choice schedule. Both keys gave the same amount of food.
The birds could peck either key. The team watched which key the birds liked more. They ran many sessions to be sure.
What they found
The pigeons almost always picked the free-choice key. They did this even though both keys paid the same amount of food.
The birds kept choosing free choice no matter how fast they had to peck or what lights were on.
How this fits with other research
Kirby et al. (1981) seems to disagree. In that study the birds picked the no-choice key. The trick: the free-choice key also gave a tiny bit of food right away. That tiny food was annoying, so the birds escaped from choice.
Moore (1982) adds a rule. Birds only like multiple schedules when the parts pay at different rates. If the rates are the same, they stop caring.
Hursh et al. (1974) found a cousin effect. Pigeons picked multiple schedules over mixed ones, even when the food stayed the same. Choice and stimulus clarity both feel good.
Why it matters
You can make a task more fun just by adding a choice. Let the learner pick the order of chores, the color of flashcards, or the song during break. The reinforcers stay the same, but the client works harder because they feel free. Try slipping one extra choice into your next session and watch what happens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In a six-key chamber variable-interval initial links of concurrent-chain schedules operated on two lower white keys. Terminal links operated on four upper keys; green keys were correlated with fixed-interval reinforcement and red keys with extinction. Free-choice terminal links arranged three green keys and one red key; forced-choice terminal links arranged one green key and three red keys. Thus, terminal links were equivalent in number, variety, and information value (in bits) of the keylights. Preferences (relative initial-link rates) were studied both with location of the odd key color varying over successive terminal links and with the odd color fixed at key locations that had controlled either relatively high or relatively low terminal-link response rates. Free choice was consistently preferred to forced choice. Magnitude of preference did not vary systematically with terminal-link response rate or stimulus control by green and red keys. The origins of free-choice preference could be ontogenic or phylogenic: organisms may learn that momentarily preferred alternatives are more often available in free than in forced choice, and evolutionary contingencies may favor the survival of organisms that prefer free to forced choice.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1980 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1980.34-77