Dr. Andy Lattal’s Laboratory

Behavioral Contrast

Behavior is affected not only by events that happen directly to it, but also by things that happen in other seemingly unrelated circumstances. If, for example, a response in situation A is no longer reinforced, behavior in that situation decreases. The effects, however, often “carry over” to another situation, B, even though nothing has changed in B. An increase in responding in situation B as behavior in situation A decreases illustrates something called “behavioral contrast.” In our laboratory, we will study behavioral contrast by reinforcing key pecking of pigeons first in situations A and B. We then will extinguish responding in situation A by discontinuing food delivery for key pecking and look at the effects on responding in unchanged situation B under two conditions. In different conditions, we will either abruptly or gradually eliminate food for key pecking in situation A and compare the effects of the two food-elimination procedures on pecking in situation B. In these comparisons our broader interest is in how sudden and gradual changes in circumstances affect behavior, a question with many implications for human behavior.  

Subjects/Participants: Pigeons

Requirements/Restrictions: None beyond CITI training

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