Howard, M. L., & White, K. G. (2003).
Social influence in pigeons (Columba livia): The role of differential reinforcement.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
79, 175-191.
Socially-influenced learning was studied in observer pigeons that
observed a demonstrator in an adjacent chamber performing a
target response comprising standing on a box and pecking a key 10
times. In Experiment 1 there was no evidence for social learning
in the absence of reinforcement of the observer's behavior. When
the target response was already established in the observer's
repertoire, but was not differentially reinforced in relation to
the demonstrator's behavior, rates of extinction were not
influenced by the demonstrator's behavior (Experiment 2).
Reinforcement of the observer's target response in the presence
of the modeled target response, and not in its absence, resulted
in control of the observer's responding by the behavior of the
demonstrator (Experiments 3 and 4). This control was extended in
Experiment 5 to deferred responses that occurred following a
delay since the demonstrator's target responses. The acquisition
of social influence depended on differential reinforcement of the
observer's target response, with the demonstrator's target
behavior serving as the explicit discriminative stimulus.
Key words: social influence, match-dependent dearning, imitation, discriminative
stimulus control, differential reinforcement, pigeon