Kelly D M, Spetch M L
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E9.
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 2001 Oct;27(4):417-22.
Pigeons were trained to search for hidden food in a rectangular environment designed to eliminate any external cues. Following training, the authors administered unreinforced test trials in which the geometric properties of the apparatus were manipulated. During tests that preserved the relative geometry but altered the absolute geometry of the environment, the pigeons continued to choose the geometrically correct corners, indicating that they encoded the relative geometry of the enclosure. When tested in a square enclosure, which distorted both the absolute and relative geometry, the pigeons randomly chose among the 4 corners, indicating that their choices were not based on cues external to the apparatus. This study provides new insight into how metric properties of an environment are encoded by pigeons.
鸽子在一个经过设计以消除任何外部线索的矩形环境中接受训练，以寻找隐藏的食物。训练后，作者进行了无强化测试试验，在这些试验中对实验装置的几何属性进行了操控。在保留相对几何形状但改变环境绝对几何形状的测试中，鸽子继续选择几何形状正确的角落，这表明它们编码了围栏的相对几何形状。当在一个使绝对几何形状和相对几何形状都发生扭曲的正方形围栏中进行测试时，鸽子在四个角落中随机选择，这表明它们的选择并非基于实验装置外部的线索。这项研究为鸽子如何编码环境的度量属性提供了新的见解。
