Choice and timing in pigeons under differing levels of food deprivation

• Preferring stimuli associated with food deprivation is state-dependent valuation learning (SDVL).
• Evidence for this effect is less robust in pigeons than in other animals.
• Food deprivation altered pigeons’ obtained time to food delivery.
• When time to food was constrained to be similar, pigeons were indifferent.
• Obtained relative immediacy may be an important factor in SDVL.

State-dependent valuation learning (SDVL) is a preference for stimuli associated with relative food deprivation over stimuli associated with relative satiety. Pigeons were exposed to experimental conditions designed to investigate SDVL and to test the hypothesis that obtained relative immediacy during training predicts choice during test probes. Energy states were manipulated using a procedure that has previously revealed SDVL in starlings and pigeons. In Experiment 1, pigeons preferred the stimulus associated with deprivation in the first choice probe session, but were indifferent in the second. Changes in choice were consistent with changes in obtained relative immediacy. In Experiment 2, training parameters were altered and SDVL did not occur. Obtained relative immediacy again predicted choice. Results of both experiments provide evidence that obtained relative immediacy may be an important contributing factor to the SDVL phenomenon.