Perceptual grouping and detection of trial-unique emergent structures by pigeons

Detecting global patterns in the environment is essential to object perception and recognition. Consistent with this, pigeons have been shown to readily detect and locate geometrically arranged, structured targets embedded in randomized backgrounds. Here we show for the first time that pigeons can detect and localize trial-unique targets derived solely from global patterns resulting from periodicity, symmetry and their combination using randomly generated segments of black and white local elements. The results indicate pigeons can perceptually segment and detect a wide variety of emergent global structures and do so even when they are unique to each trial. The perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying this discrimination likely play important roles in the abilities of how pigeons, and likely other birds, detect and categorize the properties of natural objects at different spatial scales.