LEARNING THE CONFIGURATION OF A LANDMARK ARRAY .1. TOUCH-SCREEN STUDIES WITH PIGEONS AND HUMANS

Pigeons and humans searched on a touch-screen monitor for an unmarked goal located relative to an array of landmarks presented in varied scr een locations. After training with the goal centered in various square arrays of 4 landmarks, humans, but not pigeons, transferred accuratel y to arrays with novel elements. Humans searched in the middle of expa nded arrays, whereas pigeons preserved the distance and direction to a single landmark. When trained with the goal centered below 2 identica l horizontally aligned landmarks, humans responded to horizontal expan sions or contractions of the array by shifting their search vertically , preserving angles from landmarks to goal. Pigeons did not adjust the ir search vertically. Humans trained with a single landmark adjusted s earch distance when landmark size was changed. Both pigeons and humans use the configuration of a landmark array, but the underlying process es seem to differ.