Actually, the chickens _are_ playing tic-tac-toe! No computer required
(the demonstration was first done in pre-computer days). The rules are
simple enough even for a chicken. Bob and Marian Bailey (nee Breland)
shaped many chickens for this task. They ran an animal training business
for many years (Marian was one of Skinner's first graduate students); are
now semi-retired. The New Yorker piece is actually quite accurate!
At 12:28 PM -0600 2/10/99, Doug Wallen wrote:
>Sorry that I don't know where to obtain the video, but I just wanted to
>mentionn that I have played tic-tac-toe with a chicken myself. Our local
>amusement park, Valley Fair, used to have such a game. Since you could not
>see the chicken's side of the board, I have always assumed that a computer
>chip lighted the desired move for the chicken, and the chicken was trained
>to peck the lighted square, a real no-brainer and entirely appropriate for
>a chicken. It is quite easy to write a program that plays tic-tac-toe
>without losing. I did that once for a project in grad school.
>
>
>
>At 9:28 AM -0600 2/10/99, Claudia Stanny wrote:
>>Calvin Trillin has a wonderful piece in this week's issue of The New Yorker
>>about a chicken that plays tic-tac-toe in a an arcade game. He talks about
>>the training of the chicken(s) for these games, originally by the Brelands
>>and later by the Baileys. He also mentions that he once saw a video of B.
>>F. Skinner playing tic-tac-toe with one of these chickens. Since the game
>>is set up so the chicken always goes first and, I assume, response choice
>>is directed by a simple computer program, the chicken almost invariably
>>wins. (Trillin notes that Skinner once managed to eke out a draw from the
>>chicken.)
>>
>>My question is: Has anybody seen this video or know of its whereabouts? I
>>would love to obtain a copy.
>>
>>Claudia
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Department 507-389-6217 *
* "The University formerly known as Mankato State" *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
