Comparative Vision Science: Seeing Eye to Eye?

by Fabian A. Soto,
University of Iowa

Edward A. Wasserman,
University of Iowa

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Abstract

In the study of comparative cognition and perception, disparities in the diverse approaches that researchers take in studying behavior sometimes obscure the interpretation of a particular empirical finding. The authors describe their approach to the comparative study of perception and cognition, which focuses on explaining the ways in which different biological systems solve the computational challenges that are posed by their natural environments. Within this framework, the task of detecting correspondence between a three-dimensional object and its two-dimensional photographic representation falls outside the mainstream of most research in animal visual cognition and is of limited value for divulging the principles or mechanisms that underlie the visual abilities of animals. More productive pursuits seek to elucidate the principles and mechanisms of object recognition and categorization.

Keywords: comparative cognition, comparative vision, environmental tasks, natural images, object recognition and categorization

Soto, F. A., & Wasserman, E. A. (2010). Comparative vision science: Seeing eye to eye?Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 148-154. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50011

What’s the Use of Picture Discrimination Experiments?

by Stephen E. G. Lea,
University of Exeter

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Abstract

The author introduces a very different view of picture-object correspondence than the focus article. The major motivation of most experiments on the discrimination of picture sets by pigeons has been to gain an understanding of what sorts of categories are discriminated, and how it is done. Researchers with an interest in object representation use discriminations between sets of pictures of natural objects because those sets are likely to have the same structure, in terms of relative similarities, as the sets of views of a particular natural object that the bird will experience in normal life. Indeed, sets of pictures are very likely to offer a better model of the structure of such categories than artificial categories. It is in this sense, and not because of an expectation that the birds will recognize the objects they represent, that they are more ecologically valid than abstract patterns.

Keywords: picture-object equivalence, picture perception, categorization, visual discrimination

Lea, S. E. G. (2010). What’s the use of picture discrimination experiments?Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 143-147. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50010

On Categories, Pictures, and the Goals of Comparative Psychology

by Olga F. Lazareva,
Drake University

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Abstract

The focus article concluded that comparative research in visual categorization suffers from several shortcomings, including unsupported positive assumptions about picture-object correspondence and use of artificially stimuli that bear a dubious relationship to nature. The author commented on these conclusions and argued that research on basic mechanisms of categorization also requires highly controlled and standardized stimuli and that these are as important for our understanding of how animals behave in the natural world as studies employing more naturalistic stimuli and settings.

Keywords: categorization, pigeons, visual discrimination, photographs

Lazareva, O. F. (2010). On categories, pictures, and the goals of comparative psychology. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 139-142. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50009

Do Animals Recognize Pictures as Representations of 3D Objects?

by Masako Jitsumori,
Chiba University

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The focus article warns about the risks of assuming that animals see picture-object correspondence. For observers to recognize objects in pictures or videos, 2D visual inputs have to be matched to the representations of the real objects. Pictures and videos lack some important characteristics of the objects in the real world, e.g., self-induced motion and 3D cues. Evidence has been mixed on the issue of whether animals, particularly birds, are able to derive 3D structure from the pictorial depth cues in 2D images. The present paper returns to the issue addressed by the focus article to consider depth perception in 2D pictorial stimuli.

Keywords: picture-object equivalence, picture recognition, picture perception, motion perception, categorization

Jitsumori, M. (2010). Do animals recognize pictures as representations of 3D objects? Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 136-138. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50008

Picture Perception in Birds: Perspective from Primatologists

by Joël Fagot,
CNRS-Université de Provence

Carole Parron,
CNRS-Université de Provence

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Abstract

The focus article questioned the validity of pictures to present real objects to birds, mostly because pictures are made for human eyes, and birds’ eyes have different functional properties. The authors agreed with the focus article, but went on to show that the issue of picture validity is similarly critical for primatologists, even when they study higher nonhuman primates with visual systems more similar to those of humans. The authors emphasized cognitive limitations in referential abilities that may be important sources of differences in picture processing modes between human and other animals. They further distinguished among three distinct cognitive levels of pictures processing, termed independence, confusion, and equivalence.

Keywords: picture, visual cognition, monkey

Fagot, J., & Parron, C. (2010). Picture perception in birds: Perspective from primatologists. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 132-135. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50007

Determining When Birds Perceive Correspondence Between Pictures and Objects: A Critique

by Ronald G. Weisman,
Queen’s University

Marcia L. Spetch,
University of Alberta

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Abstract

The use of pictures in avian visual cognition research has expanded over the past few decades but understanding of how birds perceive pictures has not kept pace. Separate evolutionary pathways and distinct differences in existent avian and mammalian visual systems mean that researchers cannot assume that birds see pictures the way humans do. In this article, the authors argue that, to avoid anthropomorphic errors, researchers need empirical evidence about correspondence between perception of their picture stimuli and perception of objects. The authors review a few promising instances of correspondence. The authors further argue that closer attention should be paid to characteristics of display methodologies and their appropriateness for avian vision. Finally, they argue that the field will benefit if journal reviewers and editors provide more useful guidance to researchers about adding evidence of correspondence between the pictures and the real-life objects researchers claim or imply that their pictures represent.

Keywords: animals, anthropomorphism, avian perception, birds, natural science explanation, object perception, perceptual correspondence between pictures and objects

Weisman, R. G., & Spetch, M. L. (2010). Determining When Birds Perceive Correspondence Between Pictures and Objects: A Critique. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 117-131. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50006

Cross-species Assessment of the Linguistic Origins of Color Categories

by Jules Davidoff,
University of London

Joël Fagot,
CNRS-Université de Provence

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This article considers the relation between language and categorical perception (CP) of color. Two opposite theories are reviewed, the universalist position arguing that categories are universal with an essentially biological origin, and the relativist position that holds that color categories are essentially arbitrary and derive from color terms of the speaker’s language. A review of the human literature presents developmental, neuropsychological, cross-cultural, neuro-imaging and computer simulation evidence that CP of colors has at least partly linguistic origins. As animal studies also contribute to this debate, we then review evidence of CP in the visual and auditory domains, and pinpoint the inconsistencies of the literature. To make a direct comparison between humans and monkeys, experimental studies compared humans and baboons for their color thresholds and in a recognition memory task designed to assess CP of colors. Only humans showed better betweencategory than within-category discrimination performance, suggesting species differences in the processing of a color continuum. That study along with some of our previous research supports the theory of a linguistic origin for color categories in humans.

Keywords: color, perception, categorization, language

Davidoff, J., & Fagot, J. (2010). Cross-species Assessment of the Linguistic Origins of Color Categories. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 100-116. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50005

Rudiments of mind: Insights through the chick model on number and space cognition in animals

by Giorgio Vallortigara,
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy

Lucia Regolin,
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Cinzia Chiandetti,
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy and Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

Rosa Rugani,
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy

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Studies on human infants, focused on the ontogenetic origins of knowledge, have provided evidence for a small set of separable systems of core knowledge dealing with the representation of objects, number, and space. We investigated core knowledge systems from a comparative perspective, making use of the domestic chick as a model system, and filial imprinting as a key to animal mind. Here, we discuss evidence showing precocious abilities in the chick for representing: (i) the cardinal and ordinal/sequential aspects of numerical cognition, and (ii) the distance, angle, and sense relations among extended surfaces in the surrounding layout. Some of the abilities associated with core knowledge systems of number and space were observed in the absence of (or with very reduced) visual experience, supporting a nativistic account of the origins of knowledge.

Keywords: number, space, geometry, avian cognition, chick

Vallortigara, G., Regolin, L., Chiandetti, C., & Rugani, R. (2010). Rudiments of mind: Insights through the chick model on number and space cognition in animals. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 78-99. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50004

Resituating Cognition

by Peter R. Killeen,
Arizona State University

Arthur M. Glenberg,
Arizona State University
University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Cognition, historically localized in one part of the body—the heart in earlier times, the head in latter—involves the action of the organism as a whole: within and dependent upon the details of its physical and social environment. Recent experiments with humans, and classic ones with animals, reveal the essential role played by perceptual and motor acts in shaping the character of thought. Cognition is redefined in terms of Aristotle’s four causes: Occasioned by changes in the environment, its substrate is the nervous system—peripheral as well as central; it evolved to guide action, and may be represented as a special kind of automaton. Cognition is repositioned, from a species of mindwork to an activity pervading the body and the locale, without which it would be difficult to maintain, and would have been impossible to achieve.

Keywords: behaviorism, causation, cognitive science, embodied cognition, exocentric cognition, situated cognition

Killeen, P. R., & Glenberg, A. M. (2010). Resituating Cognition. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 59-77. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50003

The Comparative Psychology of Serially Organized Behavior

by Herbert Terrace,
Columbia University & the New York State Psychiatric Institute

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The study of serially organized behavior has benefited from a new paradigm for training sequences, from new technology for presenting multiple images in varied spatial positions and from new concepts for describing serially organized behavior. The new paradigm is the simultaneous chaining paradigm, one that presents all list items simultaneously, in a new configuration on each trial. Because there are no external cues to guide the execution of the required sequence, subjects must form a representation of the sequence and update it while moving from item to item. Experiments in which humans and monkeys were trained to learn sequences composed of arbitrary items showed that subjects acquired knowledge of the ordinal position of each item, and its relationship with other items from a list, without any requirement to do so. Symbolic distance and magnitude functions, that were obtained from both monkeys and humans, who were trained to execute arbitrary and numerical lists, provide strong evidence of an underlying ordinal knowledge, at both the behavioral and the neural level.

Terrace, H. (2010). The Comparative Psychology of Serially Organized Behavior. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 5, 23-58. Retrieved from https://comparative-cognition-and-behavior-reviews.org/ doi:10.3819/ccbr.2010.50002