Preference for fixed over variable access to food

Abstract

Three pigeons pecked for food in a concurrent chain schedule. Pecks in one link of the concurrent chain resulted in a fixed duration of access to food, while pecks in the other link resulted in either no access to food or 8 sec of access to food. All three pigeons pecked more often in the initial link which resulted in the fixed duration of access to food, indicating preference for fixed over variable access to food. This result does not seem consistent with previous results showing preference for variable- over fixed-interval schedules. However, the results are consistent if preference is determined by differential weighting of reward values, and preference is independent of whether a reward is fixed or variable. This analysis suggests that previous results of fixed- vs. variable-reward studies cannot be used to argue that animals do not prefer information over uncertainty. © 1979 Psychonomic Society, Inc.