The what and the where of the pigeon's processing of complex visual stimuli

Kim Kirkpatrick-Steger, Edward A. Wasserman
1996 Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Behavior Processes  
Eight pigeons were trained on a go-no go visual discrimination involving 1 S + and 15 S s. The 16 discriminative stimuli were black-and-white line drawings created by the factorial combination of 4 different geometric shapes (wedge, cylinder, cone, handle) in 4 different spatial locations (right, left, above, below) in relation to a common shape (cube). All of the pigeons readily learned this complex visual discrimination. Each bird's pecking behavior was controlled by both attributes of the
more » ... e drawings, but somewhat stronger stimulus control was exerted by the location of the added component than by its shape. Across all 8 pigeons, there was an inverse relation between stimulus control by component shape and component location. These results document pigeons' joint processing of "what" and "where" information in visual discrimination learning.
doi:10.1037/0097-7403.22.1.60 fatcat:mxi2ghj6ivdmzh54cx54wnj2ci