Spatial Cognition of Zebra Finches in a Morris-maze Analogue Apparatus

Abstract

There are many studies of spatial memory in food-storing birds, but comparable studies in songbirds are rather rare. We have devised a Morris-maze analogue for zebra finches (Taeniopygiaguttata). Here we examined the discriminative behavior of zebra finches (N = 10) in the maze analogue used in previous experiments. The birds, when released from different positions into the aviary, had to choose one baited feeder from four feeders. When the birds had learned this task, their performance in trials with a modified arrangement of the feeders was tested. Removal of a non-baited feeder did not disturb discrimination performance, while displacement of the position of the baited feeder (so as to move it closer to other feeders) disturbed discrimination. These results suggest that the birds identified the baited feeder by absolute position in reference to extra-maze cues, and that the nonbaited feeders affected the discriminative behavior by acting as distractors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)