Chiesa A Della, Speranza M, Tommasi L, Vallortigara G
Department of Psychology and BRAIN Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S. Anastasio, 12, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
Behav Brain Res. 2006 Nov 25;175(1):119-27. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2006.08.012. Epub 2006 Sep 18.
Recent evidence suggest that encoding of spatial information based on extended surfaces may differ from encoding based on discrete arrays of local elements. Here we investigated the use of these different frames of reference in domestic chicks. Chicks were trained to search for food hidden under sawdust in the center of the floor of a square-shaped landmark array, with its center in coincidence with the center of a square-shaped enclosure. Displacement of the array to a corner caused a shift of searching behavior toward the array, the search activity spanning between the center of the arena and the center of the array. After changing distances between landmarks, chicks still searched in the central area. Asymmetries were apparent in chicks tested in monocular conditions, with left-eyed chicks being more affected by the overall enclosure and right-eyed chicks by local landmarks. These results suggest that chicks can use both distances from extended surfaces and local information provided by the landmarks of the array to orient in space. However, chicks do not seem to perceive the array as a whole configuration, rather they tend to rely only on single landmarks to locate the goal.
最近的证据表明，基于扩展表面的空间信息编码可能与基于局部元素离散阵列的编码有所不同。在此，我们研究了家鸡对这些不同参照系的使用情况。将小鸡训练在一个方形地标阵列地板中央的锯末下寻找食物，该阵列的中心与一个方形围栏的中心重合。将阵列移到一个角落会导致搜索行为向阵列方向转移，搜索活动在场地中心和阵列中心之间展开。在改变地标之间的距离后，小鸡仍在中心区域进行搜索。在单眼条件下测试的小鸡中存在明显的不对称性，左眼小鸡受整个围栏的影响更大，右眼小鸡则受局部地标的影响更大。这些结果表明，小鸡可以利用与扩展表面的距离以及阵列地标提供的局部信息在空间中定向。然而，小鸡似乎并没有将阵列视为一个整体配置，相反，它们倾向于仅依靠单个地标来定位目标。
