Actually, in every one of my trials, recall performance went up as a factor of time. The longer I went, the better she did. Here is the raw data for the 5 trials:
Day 1:
40 recall attempt, 30 treats, 115g, several other tricks, motivation 4/5, almond recall treat
32/40 1st attempt recall 80%
7/40 2nd attempt recall 17.5%
1/40 missed recall on 2nd attempt 2.5%
early fr1:
5/8 1st attempt recall 62.5%
3/8 2nd attempt recall 37.5%
mid session vr3:
10/15 1st attempt recall 67%
5/15 2nd attempt recall 33%
mid session fr1
6/8 1st attempt 75%
1/8 2nd attempt 12.5%
1/8 missed attempt 12.5%
final session fr1
8/9 1st attempt 89%
1/9 2nd attempt 11%
Day 2:
70 recall attempts, 35 treats, 115g, several other tricks, motivation
5/5, misc seed treats
62/70 1st attempt recall 89%
5/70 2nd attempt recall 7%
3/70 missed recall on 2nd attempt 4%
#1 early fr1:
9/10 1st attempt recall 90%
0/10 2nd attempt recall 0%
1/10 not recall within 2 calls 10%
#2 mid session vr3:
9/10 1st attempt recall 90%
1/10 2nd attempt recall 10%
#3 mid session vr3:
9/10 1st attempt recall 80%
1/10 2nd attempt recall 10%
1/10 missed landing 10%
#4 mid session vr3:
8/10 1st attempt recall 80%
2/10 2nd attempt recall 20%
#5 mid session fr1:
10/10 1st attempt recall 100%
#6 end of session VR4 test trial
18/20 1st attempt recall 90%
1/20 2nd attempt recall 5%
1/20 not recall within 2 calls 5%
Day 3:
72 recall attempts, 35 treats, 114g, several other tricks, motivation
3/5, misc seed treats
Howling wind/rain distraction and less motivated trainers
58/72 1st attempt recall 80%
12/72 2nd attempt recall 17%
2/72 missed recall on 2nd attempt 3%
#1 early fr1:
10/10 1st attempt recall 100%
#2 mid session vr4:
19/20 1st attempt recall 95%
1/20 2nd attempt recall 5%
#3 mid session vr5:
7/10 1st attempt recall 70%
2/10 2nd attempt recall 20%
1/10 missed landing 10%
#4 mid session vr5:
4/10 1st attempt recall 40%
6/10 2nd attempt recall 60%
#5 mid session fr1:
8/10 1st attempt recall 80%
2/10 2nd attempt recall 20%
#6 end of session vr3
10/12 1st attempt recall 84%
1/12 2nd attempt recall 8%
1/12 not recall within 2 calls 8%
Day 4:
60 recall attempts, 20 treats, 115g, several other tricks, motivation
3/5, misc seed treats
Just less motivated and more distracted
52/60 1st attempt recall 87%
5/60 2nd attempt recall 8%
3/60 missed recall on 2nd attempt 5%
#1 early fr1:
4/5 1st attempt recall 80%
1/5 2nd attempt recall 20%
#2 mid session vr3:
13/15 1st attempt recall 86%
1/15 2nd attempt recall 7%
1/15 not recall within 2 calls 7%
#3 mid session vr5 (with clicker):
18/20 1st attempt recall 90%
1/20 2nd attempt recall 5%
1/20 missed landing 5%
#4 mid session vr5:
9/10 1st attempt recall 90%
1/10 2nd attempt recall 10%
#5 end of session vr2
8/10 1st attempt recall 80%
1/10 2nd attempt recall 10%
1/10 not recall within 2 calls 10%
Day 5:
60 recall attempts, 18 treats, 114g, several other tricks, motivation
3/5, misc seed treats
Daylight savings time transition
51/60 1st attempt recall 85%
8/60 2nd attempt recall 13%
1/60 missed recall on 2nd attempt 2%
#1 early vr3:
12/15 1st attempt recall 80%
3/15 2nd attempt recall 20%
#2 mid session fr1:
5/5 1st attempt recall 100%
#3 mid session vr5:
18/20 1st attempt recall 90%
2/20 2nd attempt recall 10%
#4 end of session vr5:
16/20 1st attempt recall 80%
3/20 2nd attempt recall 15%
1/20 not recall within 2 calls 5%
As you can see from the raw data, in fact she gets better as she goes along. I think there is an element of learning where she learns that for the period of this training session, there will be lots of rewards for flight recall. I drew my interpretation (from data and experience) of how her recall response plays out in a training session like the trials mentioned above.
As you can see above, I normally stop training right at the point where response starts to drop off as the result of being no longer hungry or too tired. Here, I'd like to demonstrate how I feel hunger satiates vs. tiredness from exercise.
The red line represents tiredness and I believe it plateaus in the middle at some point which can be labeled "endurance." The levels of hunger I demonstrate I mean more in terms of usable hunger toward training and not overall hunger of the parrot. I think we only tap about the top 10-20% of the parrot's hunger to do training and the rest of it is too spread out to merit standing around all day to get the last bits of it to train with.
As you can see, on a continuous reinforcement schedule (FR1), the hunger is satiated before all of the physical endurance is tapped (furthermore, with prolonged exercise that physical endurance should grow, however hunger remains about constant from day to day). So by using continuous (1:1) reinforcement, you cannot tap your parrot for it's maximum flight potential. From my trials with Kili, it appears that she satiated from a 115g training weight after approximately 30 treats. So any training after 30 treats would lack hunger motivation. This does not mean that the parrot is not hungry and will not eat an entire meal after this, however, the parrot will not continue to work for food at a rate of response that justifies the training effort.
Taking things to the other extreme, at an intermittent variable ratio reinforcement schedule of 1 out of 5 (VR5), tiredness appears to kick in at or before the point at which the parrot no longer desires treats for recalls. The number of responses that can be achieved at VR5 is much greater but the complete allocation of treats per training session may not be achieved as the parrot gets tired before running out of hunger. Therefore the remaining hunger motivation cannot be applied toward training either. As you can see on day 5, I only used 18 treats to achieve 60 recalls. As we found from previous days, Kili is willing to work for 30 treats from that weight. However, 60 recalls (with probably a shorter resting period in between without a break for reinforcement after every recall), she tired out and I terminated the recall training prior to maximum use of the treats.
So what I am beginning to see is that the optimum training reinforcement schedule is somewhere in the middle at VR3. I had guessed it would be about 3 just from experience but my tests seem to lead me toward the same conclusion. At around a variable ratio of reinforcement of 1 out of 3, I can maximize the parrots exercise and hunger satisfaction by having a lot of recalls and providing a reasonable number of treats to drive motivation. I can expect up to 75 recalls in exchange for 25 treats. 75 recalls is about the limit where I can observe her starting to get tired and 25 treats is about the point where eagerness for treats begins to drop off. By using VR3 I can maximize my flight training to its maximum.
I did not mention time. Of course there is a trade off of attention span vs. resting time between recalls. If you move too quickly, the parrot will have insufficient time to rest between flights and tire quickly. If too much time is given to rest between recalls, too much time will pass and the parrot's attention will be lost before the available energy capabilities are used up. For the sake of this discussion I have been assuming that the rate of training remains about constant because my training style is pretty unified. I did however mix A to B recalls of perch to person or person to person in my study and have found that it doesn't play much of a difference. So the type of recall can also be discounted.
Mona, the issues that you bring up are mostly controlled for in my case. The endurance and conditioning are the same across all of my trials as they happened the same week. Time of day and duration of session were also pretty consistent as I train right before her bed time. So while all of these other considerations can affect recall performance from parrot to parrot or from the same parrot in different years, none of those factors should have played a role in my week long recall trial. All I analyzed were differing ratios of reinforcement and found that motivation is not affected by reinforcement schedule and the main reason to manage a reinforcement schedule is to maximize the number of responses that can be made before tiredness or hunger satiation occur.