Pigeons were trained to step on a treadle to operate a grain hopper, under the control of an auditory stimulus. Subsequently, autoshaping consisted of pairing illumination of a response key with some of the subsequent tone presentations, reinforcement occurring only after a treadle response. One control group did not have a treadle or a treadle-response requirement. A second control group received random presentations of an illuminated key. Neither paired nor random key presentations had any effect on treadlepressing. However, the paired key groups showed acquisition of pecking to the key, while the random group did not. The data suggest that pecking in the autoshaping procedure is not profitably analyzed as part of an operant sequence and it indicates that autoshaping involves a structuring of response repertoires that may well be independent of the effects of contingent reinforcement and shaping. Autoshaping seems to be governed by empirical temporal laws akin to those of classical conditioning.