Mechanisms of Avian Same-Different Concept Learning

Tufts University, Medford MA

Investigators

Abstract

The ultimate goal of this research is to understand how small complex systems, like birds, learn about how the world operates (i.e., relations between objects and events) and use this knowledge to flexibly respond to new situations. The specific objective of the current research is to examine how pigeons learn to respond to the general and specific properties of same and different relations between various types of visual stimuli and their arrangement. Recognizing difference and similarity is among the oldest and most fundamental of psychological discriminations, with important implications for our understanding of perception, conceptual behavior, intelligence-related behaviors, and their general mediation by language. 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 capacities. This research will immediately impact our understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which complex animals, including humans, learn to use concepts. This research is part of the general effort to understand how the brain generates rule-governed behavior, the long-term outcome of which will have implications for educational system. In addition, understanding 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 comparative research is also part of a larger scientific enterprise by many scientists to understand the evolution and mechanisms of cognition and behavior by investigating the distribution of behavioral similarities and differences among a wide variety of animal species.