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Amodal Completion of Moving Objects by Pigeons
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Amodal Completion of Moving Objects by Pigeons

Yasuo Nagasaka and Edward A Wasserman
Perception (London), Vol.37(4), pp.557-570
04/2008
DOI: 10.1068/p5899
PMCID: PMC2930398
PMID: 18546663
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2930398View
Open Access

Abstract

In a series of four experiments, we explored whether pigeons complete partially occluded moving shapes. Four pigeons were trained to discriminate between a complete moving shape and an incomplete moving shape in a two-alternative forced-choice task. In testing, the birds were presented with a partially occluded moving shape. In experiment 1, none of the pigeons appeared to complete the testing stimulus; instead, they appeared to perceive the testing stimulus as incomplete fragments. However, in experiments 2, 3, and 4, three of the birds appeared to complete the partially occluded moving shapes. These rare positive results suggest that motion may facilitate amodal completion by pigeons, perhaps by enhancing the figure – ground segregation process.

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