Performance of pigeons (Columba livia) on maze problems presented on the LCD screen: In search for preplanning ability in an avian species

The authors examined how pigeons (Columba livia) perform on 2-dimensional maze tasks on the LCD monitor and whether the pigeons preplan the solution before starting to solve the maze. After training 4 pigeons to move a red square (the target) to a blue square (the goal) by pecking, the authors exposed them to a variety of detour tasks having lines as a barrier. A preview phase was introduced, during which the pigeons were not allowed to peck at the monitor. Results of a set of experiments suggest that our pigeons successfully learned to solve these tasks, that they came to take an efficient strategy as the barriers became complex, and that they possibly preplan its solution, at least on familiar, well-practiced tasks.