At the ‘edge of chaos,’ pigeons keep their options open
now.uiowa.edu
University of Iowa researchers have learned that animals may keep their options open even when they know a single choice will generate a reward. In experiments with pigeons, the researchers report they operated “at the edge of chaos,” meaning the birds balanced a consistent reward with exploring

seriously though

“What we learned is there’s something that keeps the birds from becoming fully machinelike in their responses,” says Wasserman, the study’s corresponding author. “Maybe it’s in their best interest to keep some variability in their behavior. You don’t want to be too locked in, because things happen, and the world could change.”

The study also extends the notion of the edge of chaos beyond evolutionary biology, where flexibility to a changing environment can be beneficial to a species’ survival.

“Might other, more intricate and innovative behaviors like playing an instrument, composing music, and creating visual art involve similarly adaptive variation?” says Odysseus Orr, study co-author and third-year graduate student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences who earned his undergraduate degree from Iowa in 2023. “Only time will tell, but the pigeons provide a convenient gateway for answering those questions under highly controlled circumstances.”

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“Such dramatic behavioral instability is most definitely not consistent with the Law of Effect,” says Wasserman, who has studied pigeon cognition and behavior for more than five decades. “The pigeons maintain this exploratory tendency and keep trying multiple sequences. They do not abide by the familiar maxim: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”

source of shitpost https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2026/04/edge-chaos-pigeons-keep-their-options-open