Lack of spontaneous alternation in favor of perseveration in domestic fowls and pigeons

When allowed successive free choices of the arms of a T-maze, domestic fowls and pigeons repeated rather than alternated entries of the two alternatives. Such perseveration was less when one arm was black and the other white than when both were grey. Perseveration increased between the beginning and the end of the experiment and was unaffected by confinement to a chosen arm for 30 or 60 seconds. Removal from a chosen arm may have provided relief from an aversive situation and thus reinforced subsequent re-entries of the same arm. The results were therefore accounted for by the adoption of a win-stay escape strategy.