Journal article
Pigeons exhibit contextual cueing to both simple and complex backgrounds
Behavioural processes, Vol.104, pp.44-52
05/2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.01.021
PMCID: PMC4011955
PMID: 24491468
Abstract
Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of this contextual cueing effect using a novel Cueing-Miscueing design. Pigeons had to peck a target which could appear in one of four possible locations on four possible color backgrounds or four possible color photographs of real-world scenes. On 80% of the trials, each of the contexts was uniquely paired with one of the target locations; on the other 20% of the trials, each of the contexts was randomly paired with the remaining target locations. Pigeons came to exhibit robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 2s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on correctly-cued trials than on incorrectly-cued trials. Contextual cueing proved to be more robust with photographic backgrounds than with uniformly colored backgrounds. In addition, during the context-target delay, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. These findings confirm the effectiveness of animal models of contextual cueing and underscore the important part played by associative learning in producing the effect. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: SQAB 2013: Contextual Con.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Pigeons exhibit contextual cueing to both simple and complex backgrounds
- Creators
- Edward A Wasserman - University of Iowa, United States. Electronic address: ed-wasserman@uiowa.eduYuejia Teng - University of Iowa, United StatesLeyre Castro - University of Iowa, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Behavioural processes, Vol.104, pp.44-52
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.01.021
- PMID
- 24491468
- PMCID
- PMC4011955
- NLM abbreviation
- Behav Processes
- ISSN
- 0376-6357
- eISSN
- 1872-8308
- Publisher
- Netherlands
- Grant note
- EY019781 / NEI NIH HHS\nR01 EY019781 / NEI NIH HHS\nR01 MH047313 / NIMH NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2014
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070867402771
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