Mechanisms of Avian Perception, Categorization, and Memory

本研究的目标是了解小型复杂系统如何学习世界，特别是它们如何感知对象以及这些对象和事件之间的关系，以及它们如何利用这些知识灵活地应对新的情况。本研究的具体目标是提出三条互补的探究路线，详细考察鸽子相同/不同概念学习、刺激记忆和基于运动的物体知觉的行为机制。这些都是重要的问题，因为识别差异和相似是最古老和最基本的心理歧视之一，对理解感知、概念行为、智力相关行为及其语言调节具有重要意义。了解这些动物巨大视觉记忆能力背后的过程，也将促进我们了解大脑如何能够编码大量信息，以及它们如何以及为什么会因衰老和疾病而失败。最后，了解视觉感知背后的机制是最困难和最困难的生物学问题之一。研究这些机制是如何在视觉复杂的动物系统中运作的，是解决这些问题的关键一步。鸽子是这种比较认知研究的理想对象，因为它们进化出了小而强大的中枢神经系统，能够进行特殊的视觉感知和复杂的辨别学习。这项研究将立即影响我们对包括人类在内的复杂动物使用特定记忆和概念组合来指导行为的心理机制的理解。这项研究是了解大脑如何产生和控制行为的总体努力的一部分。对小型生物系统如何工作的机制的了解，可能是为各种目的(例如，用于盲人的紧凑型视觉假肢、用于搜索和救援的自主机器人、高效的信息传输算法)的类似“智能”系统的实际工程的关键。这种类型的比较研究也是许多科学家进行的一项更大的科学事业的一部分，目的是通过调查实验室和野外环境中各种动物物种的行为相似和差异的分布，了解认知和行为的进化和机制及其在自然界中的功能。

Non-Technical Summary The goal of this research is to understand how small complex systems learn about the world, in particular how they perceive objects and the relations between these objects and events and how they use this knowledge to flexibly respond to new situations. The specific objectives of the current research are to advance three complementary lines of inquiry examining in detail the behavioral mechanisms of same/different concept learning, stimulus memory, and motion-based object perception in pigeons. These are important issues because recognizing difference and similarity is among the oldest and most fundamental of psychological discriminations, with important implications for understanding of perception, conceptual behavior, intelligence-related behaviors, and their mediation by language. Understanding the processes underlying the large visual memory capacity of these animals will also advance our knowledge of how brains are capable of encoding large amounts of information and how and why they fail as a function of aging and disease. Finally, understanding the mechanisms underlying visual perception ranks among the most demanding and difficult of biological issues. Examining how these mechanisms operate in a visually sophisticated animal system is a key step towards solving such questions. Pigeons are ideal for such comparative cognitive studies because they evolved small, powerful, central nervous systems capable of exceptional visual perception and complex discrimination learning. This research will immediately impact our understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which complex animals, including humans, use the combination of specific memories and concepts to guide behavior. This research is part of the general effort to understand how the brain generates and controls behavior. An understanding of the mechanisms of how small biological systems work could be key to the practical engineering of similar "smart" systems for a variety of purposes (e.g., compact visual prostheses for the blind, autonomous robots for search and rescue, efficient information transmission algorithms). This type of comparative research is also part of a larger scientific enterprise by many scientists to understand the evolution and mechanisms of cognition and behavior and their functions in the natural world by investigating the distribution of behavioral similarities and differences among a wide variety of animal species in both laboratory and field settings.