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