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From: gwynne@milton.u.washington.edu (Kristan Geissel)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: recognition
Message-ID: <1991May31.224437.27565@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 31 May 91 22:44:37 GMT
References: <21828@brahms.udel.edu>
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 28

In article <21828@brahms.udel.edu> jms@brahms.udel.edu (John Milbury-Steen) writes:
>Are you sure they are not simply doing a mechanical Pavlovian response,
>such as "presence of this guy" means "food is on the way"?  It may be
>even more simple-minded, since they apparently will not recognize you
>without the right jacket: "sight of red jacket" indicates "food is on
>the way."   
>
>Of course we all like to be loved, and it is normal to project gratitude
>onto our bird friends, but a little positive conditioning could simulate
>affection, could it not?
>
You're right, of course, as I pointed out in my story about the crow.  But
the first coot that I adopted went through stages of not recognizing the 
different coats to recognizing me - period.  Also, it was the only one to
respond to "Is that my coot?".  I am not being facetious when I ask this:
at what point does a Pavlovian response stop being that?  Was it when we
got past the different "feathers" or was it when it started recognizing 
my voice?  Did I turn into an outsized, funny looking coot to it, with 
a different call or was it still merely fine tuning it's mechanical 
response to a higher scale?  I still haven't been able to figure that out
even having fed it now for three seasons.  And regardless of it being a 
Pavlovian response or not, I will always treasure sitting on an old
boat house with my coot snoozing at my feet.  

Any bird psychologists out there who could answer the question posed 
above? :)

Kristan Geissel