What drives animals to repeat certain behaviors, and why do they sometimes deviate from these patterns? Recent research from the University of Iowa explores these questions through the intriguing behavior of pigeons, offering insights into adaptability and decision-making processes in animals.
Why it matters
The research highlights that animals balance habitual behavior with exploration, suggesting that maintaining behavioral flexibility can enhance adaptability, creativity, and resilience across changing environments.
In an experiment conducted by University of Iowa researchers, pigeons were rewarded with food for pecking five buttons in any sequence. Over time, these birds reduced the diversity of their button-pressing sequences but consistently avoided settling on a single pattern. Instead, they explored various sequences, showcasing a strategy that Ed Wasserman, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, describes as “responding at the edge of chaos.”
Wasserman explains, “What we learned is there’s something that keeps the birds from becoming fully machinelike in their responses. Maybe it’s in their best interest to keep some variability in their behavior. You don’t want to be too locked in, because things happen, and the world could change.”
This study extends the concept of the edge of chaos beyond evolutionary biology, emphasizing behavioral flexibility’s role in survival. Odysseus Orr, a co-author and graduate student, poses the question, “Might other, more intricate and innovative behaviors like playing an instrument, composing music, and creating visual art involve similarly adaptive variation?”
Gaining valuable lab experience
Sophia Li, a high school senior, joined the lab through the Belin-Blank Center Secondary Student Training Program. Her involvement in the pigeon experiments marked her first professional research experience.
Li reflects, “I had an exceptional experience. The structure of the SSTP program and the support from everyone in Professor Wasserman’s Comparative Cognition Lab created an environment where I felt encouraged to ask questions, take initiative, and grow as a researcher.”
The research team, including Wasserman, Orr, and Li, devised a study to examine the Law of Effect, which suggests that animals tend to repeat behaviors that have rewarding outcomes. Six pigeons were tasked with pecking any of five buttons in a variety of sequences, with each sequence leading to a food reward. Remarkably, the pigeons tried all 120 possible sequences, showing a preference for some but never fully committing to any single sequence.
Wasserman notes, “Such dramatic behavioral instability is most definitely not consistent with the Law of Effect. The pigeons maintain this exploratory tendency and keep trying multiple sequences. They do not abide by the familiar maxim: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”
While earlier studies with animals like mice, rats, and cats found they reduced their options once a reward-producing behavior was identified, the Iowa study demonstrated that pigeons kept switching among their preferred sequences and continued to explore less favored ones. This behavior underscores the complexity of animal decision-making and adaptability.
The study, entitled “Variability, Stability, and the Law of Effect,” was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition on April 6. The research was funded by Wasserman’s Comparative Cognition Laboratory.
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