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. 1986 Mar;45(2):149–160. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1986.45-149

Binocular depth perception in the pigeon.

S A McFadden, J M Wild
PMCID: PMC1348224  PMID: 3958661

Abstract

By means of a discrete-trial simultaneous discrimination procedure, pigeons were trained to respond differentially to visual arrays that were identical except that one of them contained a circle displaced in depth when viewed stereoscopically. Performance was severely disrupted when one eye was occluded. The monocular deficit was peculiar to the depth task, inasmuch as no such decrement was seen on a pattern discrimination. The results imply that presence of the displaced circle was discriminated on the basis of a binocular cue. It was also found that pigeons could discriminate the direction of the displacement. Discrimination of depth was independent of the global form and still occurred when elements of the array were randomly displaced in depth. Performance was not disrupted when the absolute convergence angle of the depth stimulus was changed. The cue that consistently accounted for the behavior seen was the detection of the relative angles of convergence--that is, the retinal disparity of the two planes in depth. Thus, despite the lateral position of the eyes of the pigeon, a small binocular field mediates the binocular discrimination of near objects in depth.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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