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Scene-based contextual cueing in pigeons
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Scene-based contextual cueing in pigeons

Edward A Wasserman, Yuejia Teng and Daniel I Brooks
Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition, Vol.40(4), pp.401-418
10/2014
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000028
PMCID: PMC4280084
PMID: 25546098
url
http://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000028View
Open Access

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 such contextual cueing. Pigeons had to peck a target, which could appear in 1 of 4 locations on color photographs of real-world scenes. On half of the trials, each of 4 scenes was consistently paired with 1 of 4 possible target locations; on the other half of the trials, each of 4 different scenes was randomly paired with the same 4 possible target locations. In Experiments 1 and 2, pigeons exhibited robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 1 s to 8 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials. Pigeons also responded more frequently during the delay on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials; indeed, during the delay on predictive-scene trials, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. In Experiment 3, involving left-right and top-bottom scene reversals, pigeons exhibited stronger control by global than by local scene cues. These results attest to the robustness and associative basis of contextual cueing in pigeons.
 Cues Space Perception - physiology Animals Behavior, Animal - physiology Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology Columbidae - physiology Psychomotor Performance - physiology

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