I read this from my hotel room in Florida, where I'm getting ready to play a 20 year reunion show with my old punk band. So yes, I'm still playing punk!
And I just shared this with my undergrads who are also doing research on fire ants this summer—the ant that keeps on giving.
“The cats, having taken note of the high correlation between milling and feeding, concluded that the ritual of milling was the cause of feeding.”
When Skinner was doing his studies of the effect of incentives on behavior (now called “behavioral economics”!), he noticed that some of his rats and pigeons developed little rituals that he called “superstitious behavior. Whatever an animal is doing when they get a reward will increase in frequency (the “law of effect”). Only the bar press really “caused” a food pellet to drop. You can see the same thing with people playing the slots at Vegas!
I read this from my hotel room in Florida, where I'm getting ready to play a 20 year reunion show with my old punk band. So yes, I'm still playing punk!
And I just shared this with my undergrads who are also doing research on fire ants this summer—the ant that keeps on giving.
But did you get any more tatoos?
Yes, fire ants are endlessly generous.
No more tattoos, but maybe one day...
“The cats, having taken note of the high correlation between milling and feeding, concluded that the ritual of milling was the cause of feeding.”
When Skinner was doing his studies of the effect of incentives on behavior (now called “behavioral economics”!), he noticed that some of his rats and pigeons developed little rituals that he called “superstitious behavior. Whatever an animal is doing when they get a reward will increase in frequency (the “law of effect”). Only the bar press really “caused” a food pellet to drop. You can see the same thing with people playing the slots at Vegas!
Cats, rats, pigeons, people--- all are given to superstitions. In the absence of experiments that pin down causation, it's not the worst strategy.
Great story. Walking through the various hypotheses and their tests explains a lot about the process of scientific discovery.
Thanks, Bradley!
Recommending PROVE IT! by Elizabeth Finkel
Fascinating work.