Researchers Are Training Pigeons to Peck to Receive Food Pellets

question 54

Multiple Choice

 Researchers are training pigeons to peck to receive food pellets when they see gratings but withhold their pecks to receive pellets when they see a uniform gray circle. This procedure will help the researchers determine

• A) whether or not pigeons can see color.
• B) whether or not pigeons have feature detectors.
• C) how much contrast a grating must have before it looks different from the gray circle to a pigeon.
• D) whether pigeons are intelligent enough to learn to peck one stimulus rather than another.

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Definitions:

Free Will

The concept that humans have the ability to make choices that are not pre-determined by past events or natural laws.

External Stimuli

Environmental or outside factors that provoke a response from sensory systems or influence behavior and perceptions.

B.F. Skinner

An American psychologist and behaviorist known for his work in the field of behaviorism and the development of the theory of operant conditioning.

Humanism

A viewpoint in philosophy and ethics that prioritizes the importance and autonomy of people, both singularly and together, advocating for reasoned analysis and factual evidence rather than the blind following of tradition or myth.