Abstract
Two experiments investigated the processing of global and local information by pigeons. In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to discriminate four hierarchical stimuli composed of two letters at global level and two other letters at local level. Color frames predicted the level to be tested in the subsequent two-alternative forced-choice test. The pigeons learned to discriminate the global/local compound stimuli and then showed successful transfer to the stimuli composed of novel letters that were irrelevant to the subsequent test. In Experiment 2, new pigeons were trained with the stimuli that had relevant letters only at one level. The local-relevant and global-relevant stimuli appeared in alternating daily sessions, so that the daily context allowed attention to be directed to the appropriate level. Performances on probe trials for the familiar training stimuli and novel global/local compound stimuli were compared under the context-consistent and context-inconsistent conditions. The tests revealed a cognitive precedence for local information of the compound stimuli.
