1. Animal cognition: How pigeons process visual patterns Stephen Lea

2. What is “Animal Cognition”? The study of the way animals other than humans process and use information Includes – Sensory cognition: the analysis of perceptual information – Spatial cognition: finding your way around – Social cognition: acquiring information from and about other animals – Memory – Reasoning, thinking, creativity – Motor skills Cf. “The Animal Mind”

3. How does this fit in to a Psychology degree? Essential context for human Cognitive Psychology – we don’t know what is unique about humans until we know what other animals can do A vital part of the study of Animal Behaviour Provides important data for evolutionary theories about psychology

4. Animal Cognition in Exeter Psychology Problem solving, spatial memory and social cognition in grey squirrels – Lisa Leaver Assessing intelligence and its advantages for survival in birds (bower birds, pheasants, etc) – Joah Madden Pattern recognition and concept discrimination in birds (mainly pigeons) – Stephen Lea Possibilities for related projects in other species, using field sites, zoos, etc.

5. Visual cognition in pigeons: Birds have much better eyes than mammals, including humans: – Detailed vision over more of the retina – Tetrachromatic colour vision, ranging into the (human) ultra-violet – Sensitivity to ultra-violet light The architecture of the visual brain differs markedly between birds and mammals So birds don’t always see the world the way we do…

6. The world through a bird’s eyes Visual illusions: Hierarchical stimuli: The long lines are parallel, but humans see them as converging towards the top. Pigeons and chickens see them as diverging towards the top Humans tend to describe this as an X; pigeons see it as a collection of Ts Chimeras – is it a cat or a dog? Humans tend to classify the chimera according to its head, pigeons according to its body

7. And now… hybrid stimuli Dog parent Cat parent High-pass spatial frequency-filtered* dog *Don’t worry, you’ll learn what that means. For now, think “outline” Low-pass spatial frequency-filtered* dog *You’ll learn what that means, too. For now, think “blurry” Hybrid: humans see this as a dog; pigeons see it as a cat

8. How can students get involved? To get results, the pigeon experiments have to run 5 days/week, several hours/day Computers do the testing, but people have to handle the pigeons and set up the testing sessions The pigeon lab is currently run by: – 1 professor – 1 PhD student – 1 3 rd year undergraduate project student – 1 2 nd year “intern” We always welcome students to join the team, provided they: – Like animals and will look after them carefully – Are interested in research and will be careful and accurate in carrying out experiments – you can’t say “Oops!” to a pigeon

9. Thank you for listening Questions?