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Senior Phil Kolarczyk (Gallitzin, Pa.) spent his final year in college conducting research on behavioral modification and learning with pigeons that will be published in a scholarly journal.
His studies involved three different projects that measured the pigeons’ reactions to various reinforcement stimuli. A double major in psychology and government & law, Kolarczyk worked under the guidance of Robert Allan, associate professor of psychology.
The first study had the pigeons on a fixed schedule, during which they received positive reinforcement in the form of food on the number of pecks required. The test began on a schedule where the pigeons would receive food after 15 pecks, and then was gradually decreased to five pecks. If the pigeons did not peck at all, they still received food after 30 seconds elapsed.
“One pigeon actually waited until the dot moved across the screen to the right and then started pecking,” says Kolarczyk. Instead of associating pecking in general with receiving food, in this case the pigeon associated pecking the dot only when it was on the right with receiving reinforcement.
Kolarczyk’s second study dealt with a shrinking dot, which was set up to ensure that the pigeons would associate any size of dot with the reinforcement. For a set time of 30 days, the dot was 10 centimeters in diameter, then after 30 days it was made half the size.
The final study had two components: a setback trial, in which any pecking at a key would make the time until receiving reinforcement longer, and a ramp trial, during which each peck makes the key brighter but the pigeon does not receive reinforcement until 30 seconds pass.
“The purpose of this study was to have the pigeons discriminate between the two schedules and therefore diminish their pecking during a setback trial,” explains Kolarczyk, a varsity football player who has been nominated several times by various professors to become a peer tutor and take part in a special group study examining the effects of technology on society.
“Basically what has been concluded is that the pigeons can, in fact, discriminate between the two schedules and have pecked far less in the setback trials,” he says.
Kolarczyk first became interested in the study after taking Behavioral Modification and Learning, both classes taught by Allan.
“What we learned in Behavioral Modification and Learning illustrated why we as animals do the things we do,” he says. “Something as simple as watching a pigeon pecking a key can illustrate to us the same principles that control our behavior, which is basically seeing a stimulus in the environment and responding to it.”
The student says that because Allan has been doing this kind of research for many years, Kolarczyk “could not have asked for a better person to have worked under. In his classes, he is a very concerned with whether you learn the material.”
“I think Lafayette is a great environment for academic projects because you become close to your professor over time and you can do this type of research with him or her easily,” adds Kolarczyk. “At a bigger school, the chance to work individually with a professor is sometimes limited to only one student, while at Lafayette, each professor could have six, seven, or eight students doing research with them.”
Kolarczyck has worked at a business in downtown Easton for the past two years. Upon graduation, he will take up employment as a loan officer at Gateway Funding in Morristown, N.J., a mortgage broker. Ultimately he plans on attending either law school or graduate school for behavioral psychology.