Visual numerical cognition in pigeons: conformity to the Weber-Fechner law.

ABSTRACT: As representatives of a basal bird lineage, pigeons have exhibited remarkable visual numerical cognition, comparable even to that of monkeys. Nevertheless, whether visual numerical cognition in pigeons conforms to the Weber-Fechner law remains unknown. To address this, we designed a fully automated apparatus tailored for pigeons and used it to train them to perform a delayed match-to-numerosity task. The results showed that on a linear scale, pigeons represented smaller numerosities with higher precision and larger numerosities with lower precision, exhibiting a numerical magnitude effect. When the linear scale was compressed into a logarithmic scale, this magnitude effect was offset, resulting in similar representational characteristics across different numerosities. This finding suggests

SUBMITTER: Wu P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12089156 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature