Abstract
In four experiments, pigeons were trained to find hidden food at a constant location with respect to one or two arrays of landmarks. On crucial tests, the birds were presented with conflicting cues associated with two different directions, which were 90° apart from the center of the search space at the same radial distance. The direction-averaging model predicts that the radial distance of search should not change on these tests, compared with radial distance of search on control tests without conflicting cues. The vector-averaging (vector sum) model predicts that when pigeons average the two conflicting cues, the radial distance of search should be shorter. Results support the direction-averaging model and suggest that distance and direction are independently computed in landmark-based search. Multiple sources are averaged by pigeons in determining direction.
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This research was supported by a research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the author. I thank Helene Chevalier, Paul Miceli, and Peter Vanderheyden for help with the experimentation and data analysis, and Sylvain Fiset, Cynthia Langley, William Roberts, and Marcia Spetch for comments on earlier drafts. Portions of these results were presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, November 1991 in San Francisco, and at the annual meetings of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behavioural, and Cognitive Sciences, June 1992 in Quebec City, and July 1993 in Toronto.
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Cheng, K. The determination of direction in landmark-based spatial search in pigeons: A further test of the vector sum model. Animal Learning & Behavior 22, 291–301 (1994). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209837