title: Multiple cue use and integration in pigeons (Columba livia).
abstract: Encoding multiple cues can improve the accuracy and reliability of navigation and goal localization. Problems may arise, however, if one cue is displaced and provides information which conflicts with other cues. Here we investigated how pigeons cope with cue conflict by training them to locate a goal relative to two landmarks and then varying the amount of conflict between the landmarks. When the amount of conflict was small, pigeons tended to integrate both cues in their search patterns. When the amount of conflict was large, however, pigeons used information from both cues independently. This context-dependent strategy for resolving spatial cue conflict agrees with Bayes optimal calculations for using information from multiple sources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Eric L G
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Legge
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.|Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Madan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. mspetch@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Marcia L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Spetch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
authors.forename: Elliot A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ludvig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D010856:Columbidae / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D065854:Spatial Navigation
keywords: Bayesian; Computational modeling; Cue integration; Cue-conflict; Hierarchical; Pigeons; Spatial cognition; Spatial navigation; Win-shift