Body Weight and Self-control in Pigeons

Authors

Daniel Watkins, Brigham Young University
Dr. Harold Miller, Brigham Young University

Keywords

body weight, self-control, pigeons, hyperbolic discounting function

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Recent approaches have interpreted self-control in terms of temporal factors. Most recent models posit that self-control amounts to a choice between a smaller reward that is available sooner and a larger reward that is available later. The model is applicable to both humans and nonhumans. Additionally, the model characterizes the relation between reward value and delay to reward in terms of a hyperbolic discounting function (Green and Myerson, 2004). Figure 1 (adapted from Domjan, 2006) depicts this relation in terms of a small reward available sooner than a large reward. Both curves in the figures are of the form:

Recommended Citation

Watkins, Daniel and Miller, Dr. Harold (2013) "Body Weight and Self-control in Pigeons," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 507.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/507