The role of geometric and non-geometric environmental cues in reorientation: Pigeons’ and humans’ use of relative wall lengths, angular information, and features

• Author / Creator

  Lubyk, Danielle M

• The purpose of the following studies was to explore how humans and pigeons encode and use the geometric and featural information of their environments to orient and navigate. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the use of angular amplitude and relative wall length information in parallelogram-shaped enclosures by humans and pigeons. Results show that both species readily encode both cues in training and are able to use them individually to orient, but the angular information of the corners is weighted heavier than the relative wall
  lengths. Chapters 3 and 4 build upon these findings, using diamond-shaped
  enclosures and arrays to examine how orientation via angular amplitudes and
  features compare in the two environment types. Results indicate that both humans
  and pigeons can orient using either cue. However, the relative salience of the
  featural and angular information differs by species, environment type, and the
  amplitude of the goal angles.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Human
  • Spatial
  • Pigeon
  • Geometry
  • Features
  • Orientation
  • Angles

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3335Q

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.