this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
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TL;DR..?
evidence from a single study suggests pigeons may not be wired to repeat behaviors that have rewarded them previously, instead opting to try new behaviors
Thank you!
And IMO that would be an exceedingly strange takeaway as I see it in general, pigeons being some classic Pavlovian-exhibiting animals as it were. So then, perhaps what's being suggested here is that they're more exploratory and exhibit much more free will and unpredictability than previously imagined..?
Or something like that..?
Something like that. I think the study wasn't designed/interpreted well to demonstrate variable behavior.
They presented the pigeons with 5 differently colored buttons. 5 button presses of any color in any order would dispense a food reward.
The pigeons continued to press random buttons and get their food. The researchers argued that since the pigeons didn't press the same sequence every time, or the same button 5 times in a row, that this demonstrates they prefer to try new behaviors rather than stick with ones they know result in a reward.
I think they might be giving the pigeons too much credit, intelligence-wise... but I'm kind of a pigeon hater so I'm severely biased lol
Did they have a control group where the colors did matter? If there was never a condition of it mattering, why would anyone vary the presses, unless they just liked pressing red a lot, or the easier to reach buttons, or something else. Seems like an experiment that had already determined the result.
Well, it does tend to happen with rats/monkeys/people.
If 5 buttons all work the same way, you just hit whichever one is closest or whatever, over and over again. You spam it, hit it as fast as you can.
I can wake up my computer by hitting any key, I have something like 50 keys to choose from, I click the mouse every time.
With rules like that, I don't understand why you would expect the pigeons to repeat the same sequence. Of course, this is yet another study that shouldn't have even made it through peer review.
With rules like that I would expect people to split onto two groups: ones that learn one pattern and repeat it because it's a guaranteed result, and one that tries to find a counterexample to the rule they thought of at first. The fact that pigeons try different patterns kind of makes them more clever in my eyes.
But it's known that pigeons perform better than humans in Monty Hall problem, so they are really pretty smart when it comes to statistics, it seems
They thought the pigeons would develop a favourite button or a favourite pattern. But the pigeons prefer variety over favourites.
Yeah it seems that probably pigeons didn't know what worked or didn't work and since they never got a wrong answer after 5 button pushes, nothing mattered. Did they push the buttons faster?
So pigeons are both chaotic AND nihilistic !
I think they've only found that pigeons can't count to 5
But if theres no wrong answer why would they
Yeah maybe they were wondering if they could get something better to happen and there was no cost in just pushing random buttons so why not
Also wouldn't that mean that pigeons wouldn't be trainable with treats?
I have a friend who trains WILD pigeons with food, so... doubt
Trains wild pigeons where?
Around Wellington CBD. It's not just her, it's a thing people do
https://youtube.com/shorts/9w1l9q9qXMw
Thank you for pigeon training videos. You knew exactly why I asked LOL
A fun anecdotal story is my partner knew someone who worked at a prison in Ireland. Apparently someone was visiting, and saw a pigeon with a little package of coke attached the the leg. They pointed it out to the guard who responded "not worth the paperwork" 😆
takeaway: pigeons are wild in the sack
Or in layman's terms, pigeons are completely stupid.
Unless they just find pushing the different buttons more fun than pushing the same button 5 times. "haha buttons go brrrrrr"
Pigeons prefer to switch up the way they perform useful behaviours.
Researchers know that rewarding a behaviour makes it more frequent, and they assumed it also makes behaviours more consistent. But they tried it with pigeons, and pigeons prefer to do the rewarded behaviour in lots of different ways. They like changing up their strategy for getting treats.
They think this might not be unique to pigeons, so they're gonna try it with some other animals next.
Speaking anecdotally, I prefer to use a variety of different Go openings over the same one again and again.
Wouldn't using different Go openings be disadvantageous to you if you're playing a different partner every time?
I don't care, brain craves variety. It's more fun to do lots of different things.
Variety is kind of a moving target for brains.
I notice this especially with music. Some genres of music sound all the same to me, but I'm also certain some music I listen to is interchangable to other people.
Once you can sink into something, little details start to matter more.
they are making sure we know they arent an NPC
As articles go, this isn't a long one, just saying.
I have a terminal disease, with my focus & energy being pretty much the first things impacted. I did appreciate a couple folks above who seemed to be in the know doing their best to explain, which wound up opening the conversation for others.
So... just sayin' that, too.
It is paywalled though.
Disable JavaScript. Loads fine.