Watanabe Shigeru, Troje Nikolaus F
Department of Psychology, Keio University, Mita 2-15-45, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108, Japan.
Anim Cogn. 2006 Oct;9(4):271-9. doi: 10.1007/s10071-006-0048-1. Epub 2006 Sep 22.
The purpose of the present study is to examine the applicability of a computer-generated, virtual animal to study animal cognition. Pigeons were trained to discriminate between movies of a real pigeon and a rat. Then, they were tested with movies of the computer-generated (CG) pigeon. Subjects showed generalization to the CG pigeon, however, they also responded to modified versions in which the CG pigeon was showing impossible movement, namely hopping and walking without its head bobbing. Hence, the pigeons did not attend to these particular details of the display. When they were trained to discriminate between the normal and the modified version of the CG pigeon, they were able to learn the discrimination. The results of an additional partial occlusion test suggest that the subjects used head movement as a cue for the usual vs. unusual CG pigeon discrimination.
本研究的目的是检验一种计算机生成的虚拟动物在研究动物认知方面的适用性。训练鸽子区分真实鸽子和老鼠的影片。然后，用计算机生成（CG）的鸽子影片对它们进行测试。实验对象对CG鸽子表现出泛化反应，然而，它们也对CG鸽子做出不可能动作（即跳跃和行走时头部不摆动）的修改版本做出反应。因此，鸽子没有注意到展示的这些特定细节。当训练它们区分正常和修改版本的CG鸽子时，它们能够学会这种区分。一项额外的部分遮挡测试结果表明，实验对象将头部运动作为区分正常与异常CG鸽子的线索。
