Bischof, W. F., Reid, S., Wylie, D. R., Spetch, M. (1999). Perception of coherent motion in random dot displays by pigeons and human. Perception & Psychophysics, 61, 1089-1101.
Pigeons and humans were required to discriminate presence from absence of motion in dynamic random dot displays. Coherence and velocity threshold were determined for both species. Coherence thresholds were approximately 3.5 time higher for pigeons than for humans. While frame rate (60 Hz and 30 Hz) on coherence tests had a large effect on the birds' ability to detect motion, almost no effect was found for human observers. Velocity thresholds were also found to be greater for pigeons than for humans. Overall, the pigeons were shown to exhibit much less motion sensitivity than humans.
Back to publications.