The effect of visual displays for stimulus presentation on pigeons' discrimination of paintings

Abstract

The present study examined pigeons' discrimination and categorization of paintings using a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a cathode ray tube (CRT). First, pigeons learned to discriminate 40 paintings by Monet and Picasso. Each painting was presented successively for 30-s separated by a 5-s blackout period. Responses to S+ were reinforced according to a variable-interval (VI) 15-s schedule, whereas responses to S- were not reinforced. After pigeons successfully discriminated the paintings, novel stimuli including paintings by Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, and Delacroix were presented under extinction. The results from discrimination training and generalization tests showed that pigeons' categorization performance was better with LCD than with CRT. The results indicate that LCD is more suitable for behavioral experiments than CRT.View full abstract