Millard, W. J. (1979).
Stimulus properties of conspecific behavior.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
32, 283-296.
Two experiments identified the conditions in which the behavior
of one bird acquired discriminative control of the behavior of a
second bird. The schedule-controlled behaviors of the
"stimulus" bird were differentially correlated with the
components of a multiple schedule according to which the pecking
of an "experimental" bird produced Food. In Experiment
1, three pairs of pigeons acquired a successive discrimination
and two reversals with the conspecific stimuli. Experiment 2
included a control condition in which no systematic relationship
existed between the conspecific stimuli and the component
schedules. While differential responding during the components of
the multiple schedule was again found when the conspecific
stimuli were available, differential responding did not occur in
the control condition. Test conditions included in the
experiments indicated that (a) the differential responding was
not dependent on the discriminative properties of reinforcement,
(b) the pecking of the stimulus and experimental birds was
temporally interrelated, (c) the visual conspecific stimuli were
critical to the maintenance of the discrimination, and (d) the
observed stimulus control immediately generalized to an
unfamiliar conspecific.