An innovative adaptive discrimination procedure examined how two bird species, pigeons and starlings, recognize and discriminate two-dimensional (2D) visual shapes. Prior results suggest a comparative divergence between mammals and birds in their relative reliance on vertices versus line segments to mediate discrimination. To address this potentially important difference, four pigeons and five starlings were tested with a square versus triangle discrimination in two experiments. An adaptive genetic algorithm guided the selection and organization of the training and test stimuli. Both species showed considerable flexibility in accurately selecting triangles despite wide variation in stimulus appearance and location. Most critically, Experiment 2 revealed that both bird species relied more on the figures' vertices during successful discrimination than their connecting line segments. This reliance was revealed by both traditional accuracy differences using contour-deleted displays and genetic algorithm-based shifts in "gene values" caused by the birds' selection. These results, in contrast to previous findings, indicate that mammals and birds likely converge in their reliance on vertices as a highly critical feature in visual shape discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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鸽子和椋鸟在二维形状辨别中的关键特征的自适应测试。

一个创新的自适应辨别程序检查了两种鸟类，鸽子和椋鸟，如何识别和区分二维 (2D) 视觉形状。先前的结果表明，哺乳动物和鸟类在相对依赖顶点与线段来调解歧视方面存在比较差异。为了解决这个潜在的重要差异，在两个实验中对四只鸽子和五只椋鸟进行了正方形与三角形的区分。自适应遗传算法指导训练和测试刺激的选择和组织。尽管刺激外观和位置差异很大，但这两个物种在准确选择三角形方面表现出相当大的灵活性。最关键的是，实验 2 显示两种鸟类都更依赖于数字 成功区分期间的顶点而不是它们的连接线段。这种依赖是通过使用轮廓删除显示的传统精度差异和由鸟类选择引起的基于遗传算法的“基因值”变化来揭示的。与之前的发现相反，这些结果表明，哺乳动物和鸟类可能在对顶点的依赖上趋于一致，作为视觉形状辨别中的一个非常关键的特征。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2021 APA，保留所有权利）。表明哺乳动物和鸟类可能会趋同于它们对顶点的依赖，这是视觉形状辨别中的一个非常关键的特征。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2021 APA，保留所有权利）。表明哺乳动物和鸟类可能会趋同于它们对顶点的依赖，这是视觉形状辨别中的一个非常关键的特征。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2021 APA，保留所有权利）。