Peck tracking: a method for localizing critical features within complex pictures for pigeons

The pigeon is a standard animal in comparative psychology and is frequently used to investigate visuocognitive functions. Nonetheless, the strategies that pigeons use to discriminate complex visual stimuli remain a difficult area of study. In search of a reliable method to identify features that control the discrimination behaviour, pecking location was tracked using touch screen technology in a people-absent/people-present discrimination task. The correct stimuli contained human figures anywhere on the picture, but the birds were not required to peck on that part. However, the stimuli were designed in a way that only the human figures contained distinguishing information. All pigeons focused their pecks on a subarea of the distinctive human figures, namely the heads. Removal of the heads significantly impaired performance, while removal of other distinctive parts did not. Thus, peck tracking reveals the location within a complex visual stimulus that controls discrimination behaviour, and might be a valuable tool to reveal the strategies pigeons apply in visual discrimination tasks.