Introduction

1. The topic under investigation is whether pigeons are can be conditioned to being superstitious.
The nature of this experiment is theoretical. It serves no purpose in the real world it is only to gain a greater knowledge of the inner workings on pigeons.

2. There was no literature review included in this report because this was the first time this experiment had been done. The subject area was outlined very well there it included a chat that displayed the findings of the research. There were several areas that were lacking in the research and the author said that more research still needed to be done.

3.  The hypothesis of this study is. Pigeons can be conditioned to perform specific tasks within timed intervals, by lowering their sustenance intake and bringing it to a controllable level. The conceptual dependant variables are weather or not the pigeons react the way the researchers want them to perform. The conceptual independent variables include the fact that no one may knows how each one of these pigeons may have been conditioned before.
Method

4. The participants in this experiment were several pigeons. The pigeons were not compensated for the work that they did, and none of the pigeons the participated in this study were dropped from the study.

5.  The author of this study manipulated their independent variables by gathering pigeons that were bread for laboratory use. They accounted for the conceptual dependent variable by starving the pigeons so that they were only eating 75% of what they normally consumed. This gave the researchers the ability to manipulate the birds into doing what they wanted them to do. The instruments that they used to record these results were, a box that was designed to release a feeder on a timed basis and the feeder was arranged on a pendulum so the birds would have to find a way to eat with this elliptical motion.
Results

6. The findings of this report were that when people are placed in settings that treat them a certain way they act accordingly. At least that is the perception of the person how is observing there actions.
 
 

Discussion

7.  The hypothesis is this experiment were supported by the findings, the only variable that was not accounted for was the way that each individual bird might react to the situation that was placed before them.

8.  The author explained the findings by showing a detailed chart which displayed several motions of these birds movements. Over a given amount of time each one of the pigeons displayed distinct mannerisms that were specific to that individual bird these mannerisms were recorded in the study that I read.

 9.  Based of my own life experience these results don’t surprise me because, each one of these birds is different and they all would not and did not exhibit the same behavior under the same circumstances. Most of the animals which I have been around don’t have the same behavior patters given the same situations this is why I don’t believe these birds would exhibit the same behavior patterns under those same conditions.

10. The areas of this study that appear to have flaws in them is the part of the survey where the pigeons were reduced to 75% of their food intake. This part of the research may have been flawed because  all of these birds may not have weighed the same amount or been in the same health conditions. Therefore the process of reducing the rate of there food intake may have had a greater affect on some pigeons. Their was no evidence of bias in this study.

11. The author of this study did say that the discriminative stimulus could have been reduced this would have allowed the researchers to gain a clearer outlook on the actions of these pigeons. The improvements that I think could have been made to this study are improvements in the way the pigeons were selected.

12.  There were no further studies, which were indicated to be done by the researchers in the future. One study that I would suggest would be a study to see if a different species of bird reacted the same way under the same conditions.