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Updated: Jul 26, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
Published on: June 2, 2014
Evidence for multistability in the visual perception of pigeons
G Vetter1, J D Haynes, S Pfaff
1Institute of Psychology and Cognition Research, Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Bremen, P.O. Box 33 04 40, 28334, Bremen, Germany.
Abstract:
Perceptual multistability refers to cases where perception alternates between two or more interpretations of an unchanging sensory stimulus. In a first experiment we trained eight pigeons to discriminate horizontal and vertical apparent motion stimuli and then presented a multistable display. In five cases their behavior showed alternations similar to human experiments. In a second experiment we varied the aspect ratio of the display in order to support the hypothesis of a percept-driven nature of the switching behavior. The pecking rates and mean phase durations varied as predicted. This is the first evidence of visual multistability in animals confronted with classical ambiguous figures. The data suggest a stochastic mechanism.
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