Open AccessFocusing and shifting attention in pigeon category learning.
Author(s) -
Leyre Castro,
Ella Remund Wiger,
Edward A. Wasserman
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of experimental psychology. animal learning and cognition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.041
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 2329-8464
pISSN - 2329-8456
DOI - 10.1037/xan0000302
Subject(s) - categorization , set (abstract data type) , task (project management) , context (archaeology) , psycinfo , psychology , cognitive psychology , feature (linguistics) , computer science , artificial intelligence , medline , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , management , political science , law , economics , biology , programming language
Adaptively and flexibly modifying one's behavior depending on the current demands of the situation is a hallmark of executive function. Here, we examined whether pigeons could flexibly shift their attention from one set of features that were relevant in one categorization task to another set of features that were relevant in a second categorization task. Critically, members of both sets of features were available on every training trial, thereby requiring that attention be adaptively deployed on a trial-by-trial basis based on contextual information. The pigeons not only learned to correctly categorize the stimuli but, as training progressed, they concentrated their pecks to the training stimuli (a proxy measure for attention) on those features that were relevant in a specific context. The pigeons selectively tracked the features that were relevant in Context 1-but were irrelevant in Context 2-and they selectively tracked the features that were relevant in Context 2-but were irrelevant in Context 1. This adept feature tracking requires disengaging attention from a previously relevant feature and shifting attention to a previously ignored feature on a trial-by-trial basis. Pigeons' adaptive and flexible performance provides strong empirical support for the involvement of focusing and shifting attention under exceptionally challenging training conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).