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Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals
Published on: November 6, 2016
Re-orienting in space: do animals use global or local geometry strategies?
Debbie M Kelly1, Cinzia Chiandetti, Giorgio Vallortigara
1Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, 401 Duff Roblin, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. debbie_kelly@umanitoba.ca
Abstract:
Here we compare whether birds encode surface geometry using principal axes, medial axes or local geometry. Birds were trained to locate hidden food in two geometrically identical corners of a rectangular arena and subsequently tested in an L-shaped arena. The chicks showed a primary local geometry strategy, and a secondary medial axes strategy, whereas the pigeons showed a medial axes strategy. Neither species showed behaviour supportive of the use of principal axes. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to directly examine these three current theories of geometric encoding.
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