The determination of direction in landmark-based spatial search in pigeons: A further test of the vector sum model

Chen, Ken

doi:10.3758/bf03209837

Cited by 75 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Numerous other experiments with pigeons in search tasks, both on the laboratory floor (Cheng, 1989(Cheng, , 1994Cheng & Sherry, 1992) and on the surface of a monitor (Spetch, Cheng, & Mondloch, 1992), corroborate this point.…”

supporting

confidence: 66%

Averaging temporal duration and spatial position.

Chen¹,

Miceli²

1996

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

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Pigeons and humans performed on a task in which spatial position and elapsed time redundantly signaled the availability of reward. On each training trial, a landmark moved steadily across a monitor screen. After a fixed amount of time and movement, reward was available for a response. On occasional unrewarded tests, the landmark moved at 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.50, or 2.00 times the training speed. In both pigeons and humans, the central tendency in the response distribution on tests differed across speeds, when measured in terms of both elapsed time and landmark position. Pigeons and humans seem to average a duration of time and a spatial position to find a single criterion time-place corresponding to the expected time-place of reward.In deciding when to engage in a task, an animal usually has a number of cues indicating the appropriate time for action. In doing a task at a particular time during the day, for example, the animal typically can rely on its internal circadian clock as well as external cues such as the position of the sun (see Gallistel, 1990, for a review). On a time scale shorter than the time during a day, the timing of events is also usually indicated by multiple cues. Consider, for example, a pet cat waiting for the arrival of food after hearing the electric can opener operating. The food will arrive approximately at a fixed time after the onset of the sound, so that its internal interval clock can be used to estimate food arrival. But other cues in the actions of the person feeding the cat also indicate the time of arrival of food. In deciding where to search for a desired object, multiple cues also indicate the location to search. For instance, different landmarks might be used to pinpoint the target location.Laboratory studies indicate that when multiple cues are available in the temporal and spatial domains, an animal will often average the dictates of different cues (Cheng, 1992). For example, in one spatial search task pigeons were looking for hidden food within a square arena covered with wood chips (Cheng, 1988). The goal was at a particular place within the arena, located in front of a piece of blue cardboard. When the cardboard was shifted on tests, the

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supporting

confidence: 66%

Averaging temporal duration and spatial position.

Chen¹,

Miceli²

1996

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although landmark learning in pigeons has been investigated extensively (Cheng, 1988(Cheng, , 1989(Cheng, , 1990(Cheng, , 1994Cheng & Sherry, 1992;Cheng & Spetch, 1995;Spetch, 1995;Spetch, Cheng, & Mondloch, 1992;Spetch & Mondloch, 1993;Spetch & Wilkie, 1994), pigeons have not been studied in situations involving identical landmarks that move about in a search space. Cheng (1989), however, trained pigeons to find a goal that was located between two landmarks that occupied fixed locations within the spatial arena.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning the configuration of a landmark array: I. Touch-screen studies with pigeons and humans.

Spetch

Chen²,

MacDonald³

1996

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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Pigeons and humans searched on a touch-screen monitor for an unmarked goal located relative to an array of landmarks presented in varied screen locations. After training with the goal centered in various square arrays of 4 landmarks, humans, but not pigeons, transferred accurately to arrays with novel elements. Humans searched in the middle of expanded arrays, whereas pigeons preserved the distance and direction to a single landmark. When trained with the goal centered below 2 identical horizontally aligned landmarks, humans responded to horizontal expansions or contractions of the airay by shifting their search vertically, preserving angles from landmarks to goal. Pigeons did not adjust their search vertically. Humans trained with a single landmark adjusted search distance when landmark size was changed. Both pigeons and humans use the configuration of a landmark array, but the underlying processes seem to differ.Experimental work has demonstrated that many animal species can encode the location of an important place in terms of nearby visual landmarks (see Gallistel, 1990, and Collett, 1992, for reviews). In several investigations of landmark use, a goal was located near an array of two or more local landmarks, with a directionally stable frame of reference provided by other cues (e.g.,

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“…Two general questions have been of interest in the investigation of this spatial behavior: What stimuli in the environment govern this behavior, and how are these stimuli encoded and used by animals for navigation? Although research addressing these basic questions has involved many species, including bees (Cartwright & Collett, 1983;Cheng, Collett, Pickhard, & Wehner, 1987;Gould, 1986), pigeons (Cheng, 1989(Cheng, , 1994Spetch & Edwards, 1988), hamsters (Poucet, Chapuis, Durup, & Thinus-Blanc, 1986), gerbils (Collett, Cartwright, & Smith, 1986), and chimpanzees (Menzel, 1973;Tinklepaugh, 1932), by far the most popular approach has been to look at the behavior of rats in laboratory spatial discrimination tasks (see the review by Leonard & MeNaughton, 1990). Interestingly, the cognitive mechanisms underlying rat spatial behavior are still a source of considerable disagreement.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Landmark geometry and identity controls spatial navigation in rats

Greene

Cook

1997

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In three experiments, a new reference memory procedure was used to examine how male rats search for consistently located food in a cue-controlled spatial environment. The animals searched the tops of 24 poles for six hidden baits in an enclosed circular arena containing a fixed configuration of six object landmarks. In Experiment 1, acquisition was faster and overall performance better for the consistent group (lO rats), in which the six baited poles were fixed relative to the landmarks for each session, than for the random group (4 rats), in which baited poles were randomly configured, Cue-control tests and computer simulations suggested that the consistent group relied on the landmarks to directly go to the baited poles, whereas the random group used them to employ a response strategy for searching the arena. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that the number, identity, and geometric configuration of the landmarks were important to the consistent group's search performance, Overall, these results are most consistent with the use of a geometric representation by male rats which includes information about both the identity and the relative geometry of discrete landmarks in the surrounding spatial environment.In searching for food, many animals demonstrate an accurate working knowledge oftheir surrounding environment. Two general questions have been of interest in the investigation of this spatial behavior: What stimuli in the environment govern this behavior, and how are these stimuli encoded and used by animals for navigation? Although research addressing these basic questions has in-

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The determination of direction in landmark-based spatial search in pigeons: A further test of the vector sum model

Cited by 75 publications

References 23 publications

Averaging temporal duration and spatial position.

Averaging temporal duration and spatial position.

Learning the configuration of a landmark array: I. Touch-screen studies with pigeons and humans.

Landmark geometry and identity controls spatial navigation in rats

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