Episode 217: Dr Joe Layng Pt 1: Why Not A Chicken - Contingency Adduction

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 starts out by defining what contingency adduction is. He uses several studies that were done with pigeons to help us understand this concept, beginning with a study using the mirror test to show that it’s not just humans who are self-aware. Pigeons are, as well.

Pigeons also demonstrated tool use by using a ball to press a metal plate which they could not reach, 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 this episode we are going to be talking primarily about pigeons. So if you are wanting to hear how to teach your horse to pick up his feet for cleaning, this particular episode won’t satisfy that need. But if you want to be a better teacher for your horse, then this episode is very relevant.

Joe is taking us to a whole new level of 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.

Articles cited in this episode

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 LayngThe 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