Scene-based contextual cueing in pigeons

Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of such contextual cueing. Pigeons had to peck a target, which could appear in 1 of 4 locations on color photographs of real-world scenes. On half of the trials, each of 4 scenes was consistently paired with 1 of 4 possible target locations; on the other half of the trials, each of 4 different scenes was randomly paired with the same 4 possible target locations. In Experiments 1 and 2, pigeons exhibited robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 1 s to 8 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials. Pigeons also responded more frequently during the delay on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials; indeed, during the delay on predictive-scene trials, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. In Experiment 3, involving left-right and top-bottom scene reversals, pigeons exhibited stronger control by global than by local scene cues. These results attest to the robustness and associative basis of contextual cueing in pigeons.