I am delighted that we are starting out the New Year with a conversation with Dr Joe Layng.  Dr Layng is a behavior analyst who has over 40 years' experience in the experimental and applied analysis of behavior, with a particular focus on the design of teaching/learning environments. 

In Part 1 of our conversation Joe defined contingency adduction and shared several fascinating experiments that were done with pigeons.  Pigeons showed self awareness by passing the mirror test.  They demonstrated tool use and they left themselves notes so they would know which color key to peck after a long delay.  These experiments show that it is not a genetically based cognitive ability that determines whether or not an individual can solve a particular puzzle, but the component skills that are in repertoire.  This is true for pigeons, people and horses.

In Part two Joe describes a series of experiments showing how the manipulation of schedules of reinforcement changes social behavior.  In a very clever series of experiments Dr Paul Andronis demonstrated that pigeons showed perspective taking, theory of mind and symbolic aggression. 

These studies take us to a whole new appreciation of what animals are capable of.  As you listen to this episode, if you’re wondering how all these experiments with pigeons relate to horses, that’s one of the big ones.

Episode 218: Dr Joe Layng Pt 2: Schedules Of Reinforcement and the Effect on Social Behavior

In Part 3 of our conversation with Dr Joe Layng he describes symbolic aggression in pigeons and the “prisoner’s dilemma” solution that leads to the development of cooperation between two birds.  The social interactions were not trained by the experimenter.  They emerged from the non-social components that the birds were taught.  These studies have many implications for those of us who work with multiple learners. 

Joe’s descriptions of these studies also gives us the basis for understanding non-linear contingency analysis.  

This translates to an understanding that we are better off teaching the components that are part of complex behavior, rather than trying to teach the complex behavior directly.

Articles cited in this three part conversation:

THE SPONTANEOUS USE OF A TOOL BY A PIGEON 
ROBERT EPSTEIN and SAMUEL D. MEDALIE   
Behavior Analysis Letters, 3 (1983) 241-247

Contingency Adduction of "Symbolic Aggression" by Pigeons 
Paul Thomas Andronis Northern Michigan University, T.V. Joe Layng The New School for the Learning Sciences, and Israel Goldiamond The University of Chicago 
The Verbal Analysis of Behavior. 1997, 14 5-17

Spontaneous cooperation between pigeons: S o c i a l behavior selected by ontogenic consequences in the Prisoner's Dilemma 
P. T. Andronis

ON PIGEONS AND PEOPLE: A PRELIMINARY LOOK AT THE COLUMBAN SIMULATION PROJECT 
Robert Epstein 
The Behavior Analyst 1981,4, 43-55 No. 1 (Spring) 

The Role of Contingency Adduction in the Creative Act 
Nolan Williams 
The Psychological Record 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00440-z

Episode 219 Dr Joe Layng Part 3 Symbolic Aggression And The Origins Of Cooperation

Equiosity is the podcast about all things equine with a special emphasis on the horse-human bond.

New tracks tagged #symbolic aggression