The Wyckoff observing response-a reappraisal.
Pigeons pedal to match their own key-peck speed, not to remove or gain stimuli.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pigeons pressed a pedal to see colored lights. The lights told them which food schedule was active.
The author asked: do birds press to remove the lights, or because pedal presses link to key-peck speed?
What they found
Pedal presses rose and fell with key-peck rate, not with the lights.
The birds seemed to track their own work pace, not the stimulus change.
How this fits with other research
Hymowitz (1973) ran the same pedal setup and also saw weak light control, backing the new view.
Hirota (1974) swapped the pedal for a key and still found rate matching, showing the effect holds across responses.
DEWS (1965) saw pedal bursts right after food, then a drop once key pecking started. That early drop now looks like response competition, not stimulus removal.
Why it matters
If an observing response tracks another behavior’s speed, check whether the child really wants the stimulus or is just echoing their own response rate. Before you teach a student to ask for information, test if the request is driven by the cue itself or by how fast they are already working.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pigeons were trained on a Wyckoff observing response procedure in which key responses were reinforced on a mixed schedule consisting of fixed-interval and extinction components. In Experiment 1, stepping on a pedal (a) converted the mixed schedule to a multiple schedule, (b) replaced the mixed-schedule stimulus with an unlit key (or, in different phases, a blackout), or (c) had no consequence. In Experiment 2, pedal standing removed the mixed-schedule stimulus that was physically similar to the multiple-schedule stimuli or one that was less similar. In Experiment 3, Wyckoff's differential and nondifferential discrimination procedure was repeated. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the Wyckoff pedal response was controlled by neither the removal of the mixed-schedule stimulus nor the production of discriminative stimuli. The results indicated a correlation between key-response rates and pedal-standing time. Experiment 3 showed that high response rates to mixed-schedule stimuli were correlated with little pedal-standing time while high key-response rates to multiple-schedule stimuli were correlated with considerable pedal standing time. The correlation between key-response rates and pedal-standing time was related to the physical arrangement between the key and pedal operanda.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1972 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1972.18-263