Abstract
Although the domestic pigeon is commonly used in learning experiments, it is a notoriously difficult subject in auditory psychophysical experiments, even those in which it need only respond when it detects a sound. This is because pigeons tend to respond in the absence of sound-that is, they have a high false-positive rate-which makes it difficult to determine a pigeon's audiogram. However, false positives are easily controlled in the method of conditioned suppression/avoidance, in which a pigeon is trained to peck a key to obtain food and to stop pecking whenever it detects a sound that signals impending electric shock. Here, we describe how to determine psychophysical thresholds in pigeons using a method of conditioned suppression in which avoidable shock is delivered through a bead chain wrapped around the base of a pigeon's wings. The resulting audiogram spans the range from 2 to 8000 Hz; it falls approximately in the middle of the distribution of previous pigeon audiograms and supports the finding of Kreithen and Quine (Journal of Comparative Physiology 129:1-4, 1979) that pigeons hear infrasound.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 383-392 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Behavior Research Methods |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Audiogram
- Avoidance conditioning
- Conditioned suppression
- Infrasound
- Pigeon
- Psychophysical procedures
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Psychology (miscellaneous)
- General Psychology