The dimensional nature of same-different discrimination behavior in pigeons

Abstract

We studied the dimensional nature of same-different discrimination behavior in pigeons. Birds first learned to discriminate between simultaneously presented displays of 16 identical items (Same arrays) and 16 nonidentical items (Different arrays), conditional on the color of the background. After discrimination mastery, we tested the birds with Mixture arrays comprising both identical and nonidentical items. Accuracy increased and reaction time decreased as the disparity in entropy (a measure of variability) between the arrays increased. As well, within each entropy disparity level, lower entropy values were more discriminable than higher entropy values. These results accord with a logarithmic relation between entropy and discriminative behavior and, thus, with the idea that the discrimination of Same from Different arrays follows Weber's Law.