Pigeons discriminate pictures of a geographic location

Abstract

Four pigeons previously trained to home to the roof of the University of British Columbia psychology building and 4 nonhoming pigeons were trained to discriminate between two sets of color slides projected onto a pecking panel of a Skinner box. One slide set consisted of photographs taken in the vicinity of the psychology building; the other set consisted of similar views taken at locations not previously visited by the homing subjects. All subjects were rewarded for pecking during slides from the first but not the second set. Every few sessions, new "Home" and "Away" slides were introduced during transfer tests. In a final transfer test, a completely new tray of Home and Away slides was introduced. The homing pigeons were slightly (but not statistically significantly) better at discriminating Home from Away slides. The implications of these results for understanding pigeons' homing behavior, concept attainment, and spatial memory are discussed. © 1989 Psychonomic Society, Inc.