title: Differential effects of visual context on pattern discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens).
abstract: Three experiment examined the role of contextual information during line orientation and line position discriminations by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens). Experiment 1 tested pigeons' performance with these stimuli in a target localization task using texture displays. Experiments 2 and 3 tested pigeons and humans, respectively, with small and large variations of these stimuli in a same-different task. Humans showed a configural superiority effect when tested with displays constructed from large elements but not when tested with the smaller, more densely packed texture displays. The pigeons, in contrast, exhibited a configural inferiority effect when required to discriminate line orientation, regardless of stimulus size. These contrasting results suggest a species difference in the perceptionand use of features and contextual information in the discrimination of line information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tufts University, USA. dkelly@unlserve.unl.edu
authors.forename: Debbie M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Cook
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D010856:Columbidae; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012858:Size Perception; D013045:Species Specificity; D014796:Visual Perception