The Role of Object Location and Identity in Sequence Encoding in Pigeons and Humans

Animals and humans may learn much information when presented with a series of images at various locations. The order in which the objects appear, the order of locations in which they appear, and whether those locations vary or are stable for any given object will impact how and what the subject may learn. Encoding these patterns can allow for optimal responses in identifying objects and locations in the future. Many studies have examined object-location learning, and sequence learning in mammals. However, there is less research in other phyla. Birds offer a prime taxonomic group in which to investigate these abilities. Though separated from mammals for 300 million years they are able to learn to perform many spatial and memory feats necessary to survive. As many of these abilities are shared with mammals, birds offer us two opportunities first, to look into our own evolutionary and possibly developmental past, and second, to investigate alternative ways of completing the same cognitive functions. This research will focus primarily on learning through the incidental encoding of object and location sequences. Incidental encoding is the learning of relationships and functions with the explicit knowledge of what is learned. Incidental encoding is of particular interest in this research as it plays a key role in survival under changing and unpredictable conditions. Incidental learning relies on a separate encoding mechanism from explicit encoding and goes through separate aging processes (Krinsky-McHale, Kittler, Brown, Jenkins, & Devenny, 2005; Naveh-Benjamin et al., 2009; Neill, Beck, Bottalico, & Molloy, 1990; Qin et al., 2014; Smith, Urgolites, Hopkins, & Squire, 2014). As every day in the world exposes an animal to a wide variety of stimuli, it is important to understand what and how information is selected for encoding. Such selection is necessary as it would be cumbersome for the animal to remember everything it experienced., However, it is never known exactly what information will be necessary in the future. Memory processes may have been shaped to be sensitive to many aspects within a task and use such information to direct such incidental encoding