Short-term memory in the pigeon: stimulus-response associations.

Researchers placed pigeons in a chamber with two keys.

Each key lit up with a different color.

The bird had to peck the correct key for each color.

After a short pause the same colors returned.

The pigeon now had to pick the key it had pecked before.

The pause, called the retention interval, lasted up to four seconds.

The birds usually picked the right key.

Memory stayed strong for about one second.

After four seconds choices drifted toward chance.

The study showed pigeons can hold a simple stimulus-response link for a few seconds.

Griffin et al. (1977) added a twist: the birds could peck a middle key during the pause.

That extra peck acted like a self-cue and lifted recall.

So while the 1974 paper said memory fades fast, the 1977 paper shows the bird can fight the fade with its own behavior.

Bacon-Prue et al. (1980) asked pigeons to remember two color-key pairs in a row.

Accuracy dropped sooner, showing the limit grows tighter when you stack items.

Skrtic et al. (1982) pushed delays to nine seconds and saw the same downward curve, proving the decay pattern is steady across labs.

Your learner’s memory works like the pigeon’s.

When you teach a new discrimination, keep the prompt and the chance to respond very close in time.

If you must add a gap, give the learner something to do that recalls the cue, like repeating the instruction or pointing to a card.

These studies remind us that stimulus control fades in seconds, not minutes.