Determining When Birds Perceive Correspondence Between Pictures and Objects: A Critique.

Abstract

The use of pictures in avian visual cognition research has expanded over the past few decades but understanding of how birds perceive pictures has not kept pace. Separate evolutionary pathways and distinct differences in existent avian and mammalian visual systems mean that researchers cannot assume that birds see pictures the way humans do. In this article, the authors argue that, to avoid anthropomorphic errors, researchers need empirical evidence about correspondence between perception of their picture stimuli and perception of objects. The authors review a few promising instances of correspondence. The authors further argue that closer attention should be paid to characteristics of display methodologies and their appropriateness for avian vision. Finally, they argue that the field will benefit if journal reviewers and editors provide more useful guidance to researchers about adding evidence of correspondence between the pictures and the real-life objects researchers claim or imply that their pictures represent.

Visual abilities in two raptors with different ecology

“…and P.-F.I., personal observation). Because the monitor pixels are made of 3 subpixels (red, blue and green), and we do not really know how this bird perceived the stimuli (Weisman and Spetch, 2010), we decided to stop the experiment with this individual.…”

Picture object recognition in an American black bear (Ursus americanus)

“…Recognition in this case does not necessarily indicate explicit correspondence or representation of objects as pictures (Weisman and Spetch 2010), but does show that discriminations can be transferred between modalities, regardless of what features an animal is attending to when making that transfer. Indeed, many species appear to respond to certain features of photographic stimuli in transfer, such as color (e.g., hens: Railton et al 2014).…”

“…This is an important issue in the field of comparative cognition considering the widespread use of photographic stimuli (e.g. Bussey et al 2008;Cook et al 2004) particularly in concept and categorization studies (see Weisman and Spetch 2010). Responses to photographs fall into two categories: acquired and spontaneous responses (Bovet and Vauclair 2000).…”

Picture Perception in Birds: Perspective from Primatologists.

“…Combination of these three focal colors matches the functioning of our visual system that contains three types of cones selectively sensitive to the red, green and blue color bands. Weisman and Spetch (2010) emphasize the difference between the vision of birds and that of primates in questioning the validity of pictures for birds. One critical difference is that the avian retina (especially in pigeons, the most frequently tested species) contains at least four types of color receptors (see also Delius, Emmerton, Hoërster, Jäger & Ohstein, 2000), instead of the three in humans.…”

“…In their target paper, Weisman and Spetch (2010) review the literature on picture perception in birds and adequately question the validity of pictorial stimuli (photographs, digitized pictures, and movies) to present real objects or scenes to these animals. In their review, they raise the important issue that with the current technology, pictures are primarily designed to be perceived by human eyes and might therefore, not be well adapted to birds possessing a different visual system.…”