Pigeons, portals, and Pacman: Insightful problem solving and navigation using a touchscreen video game

Video games have been used in several studies to investigate problem solving. We present empirical findings from a redesigned touchscreen navigation "grid-world" procedure resembling the classic video game PacMan (hereafter, "pacman") played by pigeons. Our objective was to develop a procedure to study insight, similar to that of Epstein et al. (1984). During Training Phase 1, pigeons learned to guide a virtual pacman across a touchscreen arena to a banana goal (triggering an "eating" animation and food delivery) and to navigate around barriers. In Training Phase 2, they learned to traverse portals that transported the pacman across the arena. Each tool was trained in a distinct context: barrier navigation with banana targets and portal use with a green dot target. Finally, we tested for functional generalization of the two learned tools in a series of novel configurations of puzzle tasks (insight tests). Results showed that some subjects were able to learn how to navigate the pacman with a high degree of control and showed evidence for functional generalization and insight.