The cognitive and neural mechanisms for recognizing and categorizing behavior are not well unders... more The cognitive and neural mechanisms for recognizing and categorizing behavior are not well understood in non-human animals. In the current experiments, pigeons and humans learned to categorize two non-repeating, complex human behaviors (''martial arts'' vs. ''Indian dance''). Using multiple video exemplars of a digital human model, pigeons discriminated these behaviors in a go/no-go task and humans in a choice task. Experiment 1 found that pigeons already experienced with discriminating the locomotive actions of digital animals acquired the discrimination more rapidly when action information was available than when only pose information was available. Experiments 2 and 3 found this same dynamic superiority effect with naïve pigeons and human participants. Both species used the same combination of immediately available static pose information and more slowly perceived dynamic action cues to discriminate the behavioral categories. Theories based on generalized visual mechanisms, as opposed to embodied, species-specific action networks, offer a parsimonious account of how these different animals recognize behavior across and within species. Citation: Qadri MAJ, Sayde JM, Cook RG (2014) Discrimination of Complex Human Behavior by Pigeons (Columba livia) and Humans. PLoS ONE 9(11): e112342.
Birds behave as if they quickly and accurately perceive an object-filled visual world. Beyond the... more Birds behave as if they quickly and accurately perceive an object-filled visual world. Beyond the extensive research with pigeons, however, there is a large and important gap in our knowledge about the mechanisms of object perception and recognition in other avian visual systems. The pattern of shading reflected from the surfaces of objects is one important optical feature that provides fundamental information about shape. To better understand how surface and object shading is processed by a passerine species, 5 starlings were tested with differentially illuminated convex and concave curved surfaces in 3 experiments using a simultaneous visual discrimination procedure. Starlings rapidly learned this shape-from-shading discrimination independent of varied lighting direction, surface color, and camera perspective. Variations in the pattern of lighting through experimental manipulations of camera perspective, surface height, contrast, material specularity, and surface shape were consistent with the hypothesis that the starlings perceived these illuminated surfaces as having 3-dimensional shape, similar to results previously collected with pigeons. These similarities across different orders of birds indicate that the relative shading of objects in a visual scene is a highly salient feature for shape processing in birds and is likely a highly conserved visual process that is widely distributed within this class of animal.
Glass patterns are structured dot stimuli used to investigate the visual perception of global for... more Glass patterns are structured dot stimuli used to investigate the visual perception of global form. Studies have demonstrated that humans and pigeons differ in their processing of circular versus linearly organized Glass patterns. To test whether this comparative difference is characteristic of birds as a phylogenetic class, we investigated for the first time how a passerine (starlings, Sturnus vulgaris) discriminated multiple Glass patterns from random-dot stimuli in a simultaneous discrimination. By examining acquisition, steady-state performance, and the effects of diminishing global coherence, it was found that the perception of Glass patterns by 5 starlings differed from human perception and corresponded to that established with pigeons. This suggests an important difference in how birds and primates are specialized in their processing of circular visual patterns, perhaps related to face perception, or in how these highly visual animals direct attention to the global and local components of spatially separated form stimuli.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 2013
Two experiments used a novel, open-ended, and adaptive test procedure to examine visual cognition... more Two experiments used a novel, open-ended, and adaptive test procedure to examine visual cognition in animals. Using a genetic algorithm, a pigeon was tested repeatedly from a variety of different initial conditions for its solution to an intermediate brightness search task. On each trial, the animal had to accurately locate and peck a target element of intermediate brightness from among a variable number of surrounding darker and lighter distractor elements. Displays were generated from 6 parametric variables, or genes (distractor number, element size, shape, spacing, target brightness, and distractor brightness). Display composition changed over time, or evolved, as a function of the bird's differential accuracy within the population of values for each gene. Testing 3 randomized initial conditions and 1 set of controlled initial conditions, element size and number of distractors were identified as the most important factors controlling search accuracy, with distractor brightness, element shape, and spacing making secondary contributions. The resulting changes in this multidimensional stimulus space suggested the existence of a set of conditions that the bird repeatedly converged upon regardless of initial conditions. This psychological "attractor" represents the cumulative action of the cognitive operations used by the pigeon in solving and performing this search task. The results are discussed regarding their implications for visual cognition in pigeons and the usefulness of adaptive, subject-driven experimentation for investigating human and animal cognition more generally.
Light is the origin of vision. The pattern of shading reflected from object surfaces is one of se... more Light is the origin of vision. The pattern of shading reflected from object surfaces is one of several optical features that provide fundamental information about shape and surface orientation. To understand how surface and object shading is processed by birds, six pigeons were tested with differentially illuminated convex and concave curved surfaces in five experiments using a go/no-go procedure. We found that pigeons rapidly learned this type of visual discrimination independent of lighting direction, surface coloration and camera perspective. Subsequent experiments varying the pattern of the lighting on these surfaces through changes in camera perspective, surface height, contrast, material specularity, surface shape, light motion, and perspective movement were consistent with the hypothesis that the pigeons were perceiving these illuminated surfaces as three-dimensional surfaces containing curved shapes. The results suggest that the use of relative shading for objects in a visual scene creates highly salient features for shape processing in birds.
We examined different aspects of the visual search behavior of a pigeon using an open-ended, adap... more We examined different aspects of the visual search behavior of a pigeon using an open-ended, adaptive testing procedure controlled by a genetic algorithm. The animal had to accurately search for and peck a gray target element randomly located from among a variable number of surrounding darker and lighter distractor elements. Display composition was controlled by a genetic algorithm involving the multivariate configuration of different parameters or genes (number of distractors, element size, shape, spacing, target brightness, and distractor brightness). Sessions were composed of random displays, testing randomized combinations of these genes, and selected displays, representing the varied descendants of displays correctly identified by the pigeon. Testing a larger number of random displays than done previously, it was found that the bird's solution to the search task was highly stable and did not change with extensive experience in the task. The location and shape of this attractor was visualized using multivariate behavioral surfaces in which element size and the number of distractors were the most important factors controlling search accuracy and search time. The resulting visualizations of the bird's search behavior are discussed with reference to the potential of using adaptive, open-ended experimental techniques for investigating animal cognition and their implications for Bond and Kamil's innovative development of virtual ecologies using an analogous methodology.
Gypsum was investigated as an inexpensive and efficient adsorbent to remove Toluidine Blue from a... more Gypsum was investigated as an inexpensive and efficient adsorbent to remove Toluidine Blue from aqueous solution. The adsorption studies were carried out at room temperature. Batch mode experiments were conducted at 25 °C to study the effects of pH and initial concentration of Toluidine Blue. The adsorption data was analyzed by using the Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin isotherm models and was found to give better results with respect to Langmuir equation. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 28 mg of the dye per gram of gypsum. The data were also studied in terms of their kinetic behavior and was found to obey the pseudo second order equation.
The cognitive and neural mechanisms for recognizing and categorizing behavior are not well unders... more The cognitive and neural mechanisms for recognizing and categorizing behavior are not well understood in non-human animals. In the current experiments, pigeons and humans learned to categorize two non-repeating, complex human behaviors (''martial arts'' vs. ''Indian dance''). Using multiple video exemplars of a digital human model, pigeons discriminated these behaviors in a go/no-go task and humans in a choice task. Experiment 1 found that pigeons already experienced with discriminating the locomotive actions of digital animals acquired the discrimination more rapidly when action information was available than when only pose information was available. Experiments 2 and 3 found this same dynamic superiority effect with naïve pigeons and human participants. Both species used the same combination of immediately available static pose information and more slowly perceived dynamic action cues to discriminate the behavioral categories. Theories based on generalized visual mechanisms, as opposed to embodied, species-specific action networks, offer a parsimonious account of how these different animals recognize behavior across and within species. Citation: Qadri MAJ, Sayde JM, Cook RG (2014) Discrimination of Complex Human Behavior by Pigeons (Columba livia) and Humans. PLoS ONE 9(11): e112342.
Birds behave as if they quickly and accurately perceive an object-filled visual world. Beyond the... more Birds behave as if they quickly and accurately perceive an object-filled visual world. Beyond the extensive research with pigeons, however, there is a large and important gap in our knowledge about the mechanisms of object perception and recognition in other avian visual systems. The pattern of shading reflected from the surfaces of objects is one important optical feature that provides fundamental information about shape. To better understand how surface and object shading is processed by a passerine species, 5 starlings were tested with differentially illuminated convex and concave curved surfaces in 3 experiments using a simultaneous visual discrimination procedure. Starlings rapidly learned this shape-from-shading discrimination independent of varied lighting direction, surface color, and camera perspective. Variations in the pattern of lighting through experimental manipulations of camera perspective, surface height, contrast, material specularity, and surface shape were consistent with the hypothesis that the starlings perceived these illuminated surfaces as having 3-dimensional shape, similar to results previously collected with pigeons. These similarities across different orders of birds indicate that the relative shading of objects in a visual scene is a highly salient feature for shape processing in birds and is likely a highly conserved visual process that is widely distributed within this class of animal.
Glass patterns are structured dot stimuli used to investigate the visual perception of global for... more Glass patterns are structured dot stimuli used to investigate the visual perception of global form. Studies have demonstrated that humans and pigeons differ in their processing of circular versus linearly organized Glass patterns. To test whether this comparative difference is characteristic of birds as a phylogenetic class, we investigated for the first time how a passerine (starlings, Sturnus vulgaris) discriminated multiple Glass patterns from random-dot stimuli in a simultaneous discrimination. By examining acquisition, steady-state performance, and the effects of diminishing global coherence, it was found that the perception of Glass patterns by 5 starlings differed from human perception and corresponded to that established with pigeons. This suggests an important difference in how birds and primates are specialized in their processing of circular visual patterns, perhaps related to face perception, or in how these highly visual animals direct attention to the global and local components of spatially separated form stimuli.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 2013
Two experiments used a novel, open-ended, and adaptive test procedure to examine visual cognition... more Two experiments used a novel, open-ended, and adaptive test procedure to examine visual cognition in animals. Using a genetic algorithm, a pigeon was tested repeatedly from a variety of different initial conditions for its solution to an intermediate brightness search task. On each trial, the animal had to accurately locate and peck a target element of intermediate brightness from among a variable number of surrounding darker and lighter distractor elements. Displays were generated from 6 parametric variables, or genes (distractor number, element size, shape, spacing, target brightness, and distractor brightness). Display composition changed over time, or evolved, as a function of the bird's differential accuracy within the population of values for each gene. Testing 3 randomized initial conditions and 1 set of controlled initial conditions, element size and number of distractors were identified as the most important factors controlling search accuracy, with distractor brightness, element shape, and spacing making secondary contributions. The resulting changes in this multidimensional stimulus space suggested the existence of a set of conditions that the bird repeatedly converged upon regardless of initial conditions. This psychological "attractor" represents the cumulative action of the cognitive operations used by the pigeon in solving and performing this search task. The results are discussed regarding their implications for visual cognition in pigeons and the usefulness of adaptive, subject-driven experimentation for investigating human and animal cognition more generally.
Light is the origin of vision. The pattern of shading reflected from object surfaces is one of se... more Light is the origin of vision. The pattern of shading reflected from object surfaces is one of several optical features that provide fundamental information about shape and surface orientation. To understand how surface and object shading is processed by birds, six pigeons were tested with differentially illuminated convex and concave curved surfaces in five experiments using a go/no-go procedure. We found that pigeons rapidly learned this type of visual discrimination independent of lighting direction, surface coloration and camera perspective. Subsequent experiments varying the pattern of the lighting on these surfaces through changes in camera perspective, surface height, contrast, material specularity, surface shape, light motion, and perspective movement were consistent with the hypothesis that the pigeons were perceiving these illuminated surfaces as three-dimensional surfaces containing curved shapes. The results suggest that the use of relative shading for objects in a visual scene creates highly salient features for shape processing in birds.
We examined different aspects of the visual search behavior of a pigeon using an open-ended, adap... more We examined different aspects of the visual search behavior of a pigeon using an open-ended, adaptive testing procedure controlled by a genetic algorithm. The animal had to accurately search for and peck a gray target element randomly located from among a variable number of surrounding darker and lighter distractor elements. Display composition was controlled by a genetic algorithm involving the multivariate configuration of different parameters or genes (number of distractors, element size, shape, spacing, target brightness, and distractor brightness). Sessions were composed of random displays, testing randomized combinations of these genes, and selected displays, representing the varied descendants of displays correctly identified by the pigeon. Testing a larger number of random displays than done previously, it was found that the bird's solution to the search task was highly stable and did not change with extensive experience in the task. The location and shape of this attractor was visualized using multivariate behavioral surfaces in which element size and the number of distractors were the most important factors controlling search accuracy and search time. The resulting visualizations of the bird's search behavior are discussed with reference to the potential of using adaptive, open-ended experimental techniques for investigating animal cognition and their implications for Bond and Kamil's innovative development of virtual ecologies using an analogous methodology.
Gypsum was investigated as an inexpensive and efficient adsorbent to remove Toluidine Blue from a... more Gypsum was investigated as an inexpensive and efficient adsorbent to remove Toluidine Blue from aqueous solution. The adsorption studies were carried out at room temperature. Batch mode experiments were conducted at 25 °C to study the effects of pH and initial concentration of Toluidine Blue. The adsorption data was analyzed by using the Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin isotherm models and was found to give better results with respect to Langmuir equation. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 28 mg of the dye per gram of gypsum. The data were also studied in terms of their kinetic behavior and was found to obey the pseudo second order equation.
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Papers by Muhammad Qadri