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Created: May 20, 2003
Latest Update: May 20, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Superstitious Pigeon

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, May 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

As I sat here uploading an article in the NY Times about dowries gone awry, I realized how many steps I was going through to save each file so I wouldn't lose my work. I lost a chapter or two on our books years ago when I accidentally failed to save them correctly. And yesterday I almost lost the questions I'd posted for Father Adjakpe. I'm not even sure how I did that, but I managed to disappear them for a while. Luckily when I went back to the original file, the questions were still there, so I was saved.

But this morning I noticed that I always "save as" just to be sure the file goes to the right place. Now I know, especially since I know a lot about compurters, that there's a much easier way to do this, just "save" and no need to go through two more steps. But I ritually save with "save as," kind of like a ten-year old stepping on each successive crack in the sidewalk, or touching each fence post, or . . .

Now, if you asked me if I were "superstitious," I'd say "no." Because of course I know there are rules as to when I can safely use "save" alone. But I just haven't time to go dig out a manual and look it up. It's easier to go with my superstitious ritural, and safer, perhaps. I really don't have the time to lose a file.

This reflection led me to recall the story of Skinner's "superstitious pigeon." You'll recall that Skinner often had his pigeon boxes set up so that when the bird pecked a lever, food was delivered, causing the bird to peck the lever again, to see if it could get more food, as it did, and thus rewarding or reinforcing the behavior of pecking at the lever.

One bird happened to be standing on one leg when he first hit upon the lever to peck. "Hey, cool." he thought, "Standing on one leg and pecking this lever got me food. Maybe if I try that again . . . And, sure enough, it worked. And so he went around forever, standing on one leg and pecking the lever to get his food." Superstition? You bet! The pigeon stands on one leg, just like I go through a three-step routine. We're both very busy, and neither of us has the time to check out which of the behaviors that got rewarded is the key behavior, standing on one leg or pecking the lever.

One good thing about positivism is that it reminds us that we are all "superstitious pigeons." In a complex real world it's hard to tell precisely what behavior got the result we were looking for. Positivist science would look carefully for all the possible triggering events and then test them one by one to see if each one, either alone, or in the company of specific others, was essential to the result. I always meant to do that. To check out the conditions for "save" and "save as." But in the real world we get distracted, busy, we opt for satisficing "Hey, 'save as' gets the job done, just use 'save as.' "

Trouble is that when we teach another, we teach by modeling or rule that they should save the file as "save as." We build our lack of time and need for file security into what we teach. And the student comes away with a superstition that you have to use "save as" because my teacher said so. It's that easy to start a superstition.

The reason we need to back away a little from positivism is that one day a student not in such a hurry, with a little extra curiosity, will notice that "save" button and play with it to see what the rules are. But if we are sure we already know the truth about saving a file, we might forbid this young student from doing so. And so our superstition is turned into "knowing" and reified and maybe no one will ever be allowed to touch the "save" button. Maybe the "save" button will even become a "sacred cow," not to be questioned, for science has proven . . .