Procrastination in the pigeon: Can conditioned reinforcement increase the likelihood of human procrastination?

• Published in: Psychonomic bulletin & review 2018-10, Vol.25 (5), p.1952-1957
• Main Authors: Zentall, Thomas R., Case, Jacob P., Andrews, Danielle M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Anxiety; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Birds; Brief Report; Choice Behavior - physiology; Cognitive Psychology; Columbidae - physiology; Conditioning, Operant - physiology; Humans; Personality; Procrastination; Procrastination - physiology; Psychology; Reinforcement (Psychology); Reinforcement Schedule
• ISSN: 1069-9384; 1531-5320
• DOI: 10.3758/s13423-017-1409-2

Procrastination is the tendency to put off initiation or completion of a task. Although people are typically known to procrastinate, recent research suggests that they sometimes “pre-crastinate” by initiating a task sooner than they need to (Rosenbaum et al. in Psychological Science, 25 (7), 1487–1496, 2014 ). A similar finding of precrastination was reported by Wasserman and Brzykcy ( Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 1130–1134, 2015 ) with pigeons using a somewhat different procedure. In the present experiment, we used a procedure with pigeons that was more similar to the procedure used by Rosenbaum et al. Pigeons were given a choice between two sequences of events (concurrent chains). Choice of the procrastination chain resulted in color A, which 15-s later would change to color B and 5-s later resulted in reinforcement. Choice of the precrastination chain resulted in color C, which 5-s later would change to color D and 15-s later resulted in reinforcement. Thus, both chains led to reinforcement after 20 s. Results indicated that the pigeons procrastinated. That is, they preferred the 15-5 chain over the 5-15 chain. The results are consistent with Fantino’s ( Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 723–730, 1969 ) delay reduction theory, which posits that stimuli that signal a reduction in the delay to reinforcement, such as the 5-s stimulus that occurred immediately prior to reinforcement, serve as strong conditioned reinforcers and should be preferred. In support of this theory, the pigeons pecked most at the 5-s stimulus that led immediately to reinforcement, indicating that it had become a strong conditioned reinforcer. The results suggest that delay reduction theory, a theory that emphasizes the attraction to stimuli that predict reinforcement with a short delay, also may contribute to human procrastination behavior because when task completion comes just before the deadline, it may become a stronger conditioned reinforcer than if task completion comes earlier.