Effects of priming, discriminability, and reinforcement on reaction-time components of pigeon visual search

Pigeons searched computer screens for 1 of 4 letter targets among 55 alphanumeric distractors. In Experiment 1, valid-cue trials used distinctive patterns to signal the subsequent appearance of specific targets, whereas ambiguous-cue trials used a signal common to all targets. Search reaction times (RTs) after valid cues were shorter than after the ambiguous cue; increased target discriminability also reduced RT. In Experiment 2, when reinforcement for 2 targets shifted from 10% to 20%, RTs to those targets dropped, whereas RTs to the other 2 targets rose. RT distributions suggested that precues and discriminability both affect the momentary probability of finding a target, as embodied in the decay constant of an underlying exponentially distributed RT component. Reinforcement changes appeared to affect different components of the response process, embodied in changes in the mean of an underlying lognormal distribution.