Operant Conditioning As A Means of Testing the Ability of White-Crowned Sparrows to Discriminate Star Patterns

Operant conditioning can be a valuable technique for investigating biological problems, as has been demonstrated with pigeons (e.g. Meyer, 1964; McDonald, 1968). If an appropriate operant is selected, such as perch-hopping, the technique can be extended to passerine birds. Stevenson (1967) used alighting on a perch as the conditioned response with first-year male chaffinches which lived in the experimental chamber. Bastian & Hothersall (1970) obtained high fixed-ratio responses (FR up to 40) with redwinged blackbirds, which again lived in the experimental cages.