Pigeons tend to respond 'at the edge of chaos,' study finds

If you were rewarded for following a particular pattern of behavior, wouldn't you keep doing it? The answer turns out to be more nuanced than you might think. In a new study, University of Iowa researchers report that pigeons rewarded with food after pecking five buttons in any order did, indeed, decrease the variety of their sequences. However, the birds kept their options open, never gravitating toward a single sequence and consistently electing to try different sequences.