New methods for analysis of vision in the gerbil.

The visual behavior of gerbils has been studied by adapting natural behaviors such as food pursuit, aperture detection, barrier negotiation and ladder climbing. Methods are described for measuring detection and discrimination thresholds using visual orienting tasks. Furthermore, studies of size-distance constancy, anticipation of a moving target's trajectory, and optimal planning of barrier detours show the usefulness of film records for quantitative analysis of complex perceptual abilities. Finally, preliminary studies of gerbils following ablation of primary visual cortex indicate that some visuomotor abilities are cortically dependent.