Pictures Of Birds Research Articles

Source Memory for Mental Imagery: Influences of the Stimuli’s Ease of Imagery

The present study investigated how ease of imagery influences source monitoring accuracy. Two experiments were conducted in order to examine how ease of imagery influences the probability of source confusions of perceived and imagined completions of natural symmetric shapes. The stimuli consisted of binary pictures of natural objects, namely symmetric pictures of birds, butterflies, insects, and leaves. The ease of imagery (indicating the similarity of the sources) and the discriminability (indicating the similarity of the items) of each stimulus were estimated in a pretest and included as predictors of the memory performance for these stimuli. It was found that confusion of the sources becomes more likely when the imagery process was relatively easy. However, if the different processes of source monitoring—item memory, source memory and guessing biases—are disentangled, both experiments support the assumption that the effect of decreased source memory for easily imagined stimuli is due to decision processes and misinformation at retrieval rather than encoding processes and memory retention. The data were modeled with a Bayesian hierarchical implementation of the one high threshold source monitoring model.

Human Preferences for Colorful Birds: Vivid Colors or Pattern?

In a previous study, we found that the shape of a bird, rather than its color, plays a major role in the determination of human preferences. Thus, in the present study, we asked whether the preferences of human respondents towards uniformly shaped, colorful birds are determined by pattern rather than color. The experimental stimuli were pictures of small passerine birds of the family Pittidae possessing uniform shape but vivid coloration. We asked 200 participants to rank 43 colored and 43 identical, but grayscaled, pictures of birds. To find the traits determining human preferences, we performed GLM analysis in which we tried to explain the mean preference ranks and PC axes by the following explanatory variables: the overall lightness and saturation, edges (pattern), and the portion of each of the basic color hues. The results showed that the mean preference ranks of the grayscale set is explained mostly by the birds' pattern, whereas the colored set ranking is mostly determined by the overall lightness. The effect of colors was weaker, but still significant, and revealed that people liked blue and green birds. We found no significant role of the color red, the perception of which was acquired relatively recently in evolution.

Testing the snake-detection hypothesis: larger early posterior negativity in humans to pictures of snakes than to pictures of other reptiles, spiders and slugs.

According to the snake detection hypothesis (Isbell, 2006), fear specifically of snakes may have pushed evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli. A previous study demonstrated that snake pictures, when compared to spiders or bird pictures, draw more early attention as reflected by larger early posterior negativity (EPN). Here we report two studies that further tested the snake detection hypothesis. In Study 1, we tested whether the enlarged EPN is specific for snakes or also generalizes to other reptiles. Twenty-four healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of snake, crocodile, and turtle pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity at occipital electrodes (PO3, O1, Oz, PO4, O2) in the 225–300 ms time window after picture onset. The EPN was significantly larger for snake pictures than for pictures of the other reptiles. In Study 2, we tested whether disgust plays a role in the modulation of the EPN and whether preferential processing of snakes also can be found in men. 12 men and 12 women watched snake, spider, and slug pictures. Both men and women exhibited the largest EPN amplitudes to snake pictures, intermediate amplitudes to spider pictures and the smallest amplitudes to slug pictures. Disgust ratings were not associated with EPN amplitudes. The results replicate previous findings and suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention.

A new standardized stimulus set for studying need-of-help recognition (NeoHelp).

This article presents the NeoHelp visual stimulus set created to facilitate investigation of need-of-help recognition with clinical and normative populations of different ages, including children. Need-of-help recognition is one aspect of socioemotional development and a necessary precondition for active helping. The NeoHelp consists of picture pairs showing everyday situations: The first item in a pair depicts a child needing help to achieve a goal; the second one shows the child achieving the goal. Pictures of birds in analogue situations are also included. These control stimuli enable implementation of a human-animal categorization task which serves to separate behavioral correlates specific to need-of-help recognition from general differentiation processes. It is a concern in experimental research to ensure that results do not relate to systematic perceptual differences when comparing responses to categories of different content. Therefore, we not only derived the NeoHelp-pictures within a pair from one another by altering as little as possible, but also assessed their perceptual similarity empirically. We show that NeoHelp-picture pairs are very similar regarding low-level perceptual properties across content categories. We obtained data from 60 children in a broad age range (4 to 13 years) for three different paradigms, in order to assess whether the intended categorization and differentiation could be observed reliably in a normative population. Our results demonstrate that children can differentiate the pictures' content regarding both need-of-help category as well as species as intended in spite of the high perceptual similarities. We provide standard response characteristics (hit rates and response times) that are useful for future selection of stimuli and comparison of results across studies. We show that task requirements coherently determine which aspects of the pictures influence response characteristics. Thus, we present NeoHelp, the first open-access standardized visual stimuli set for investigation of need-of-help recognition and invite researchers to use and extend it.

Does anyone need help? Age and gender effects on children's ability to recognize need-of-help.

The exploratory study presented here examines children's ability to recognize another person's need-of-help. This social perception process necessarily precedes the decision to actively help others. Fifty-eight children aged between 5 and 13 completed three experimental paradigms. They were asked to look at black-and-white drawings and to indicate which ones showed somebody in need of help. A control task requiring children to differentiate between pictures of humans and birds measured general categorization abilities. This experimental design enabled us to consider confounding effects of children's developmental status and motivation and to distinguish them from specific need-of-help recognition abilities. As gender and age have been shown to influence social perception as well as helping behavior, we explored whether these factors also have an impact on need-of-help recognition. Children's response accuracies and response times (RTs) were analyzed. We observed clearly higher accuracy rates for younger girls compared to younger boys specifically in the need-of-help recognition tasks. For boys, an age-related performance improvement was found. Younger girls performed at a similarly high level as older girls and boys. No gender differences were observed for children aged over nine. This report provides first evidence that the developmental trajectory of children's ability to recognize another person's need-of-help differs for girls and boys.

Snake pictures draw more early attention than spider pictures in non-phobic women: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Snakes were probably the first predators of mammals and may have been important agents of evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing rapid visual detection of fearful stimuli (Isbell, 2006). By means of early and late attention-related brain potentials, we examined the hypothesis that more early visual attention is automatically allocated to snakes than to spiders. To measure the early posterior negativity (EPN), 24 healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 snake pictures, 600 spider pictures, and 600 bird pictures (three pictures per second). To measure the late positive potential (LPP), they also watched similar pictures (30 pictures per stimulus category) in a non-speeded presentation. The EPN amplitude was largest for snake pictures, intermediate for spider pictures and smallest for bird pictures. The LPP was significantly larger for both snake and spider pictures when compared to bird pictures. Interestingly, spider fear (as measured by a questionnaire) was associated with EPN amplitude for spider pictures, whereas snake fear was not associated with EPN amplitude for snake pictures. The results suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention and that early attention to snakes is more innate and independent of reported fear.

Photographic survey of the prey-choice of European Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster Linnaeus, 1758) in Hungary at three colonies

Abstract Prey choice of European Bee-eaters was monitored via taking pictures of parent birds carrying prey items to their perches in front of the nests between 2011 and 2013 at three colonies in Hungary: at Pócsmegyer, Nagykarácsony and Albertirsa. All the colonies were studied in the breeding season, and prey items were identified from the digital images taken of adults carrying food for their chicks. During the three years 25 days were spent with collecting photographic data, and from the thousands of pictures taken 805 were suitable for analysis. On 775 photographs the prey item was identified at least to order level. Combining data from all the colonies hymenopterans were by far the most often consumed insects (50%), followed by dragonflies (17%), while beetles, orthopterans, lepidopterans and dipterans each contributed approximately 7-9% of the consumed prey. Prey composition showed marked differences between the individual colonies, although the ratio of hymenopterans was everywhere high. Bee-eaters at Pócsmegyer, probably due to the abundance of aquatic habitats nearby on the Danube shore, consumed almost as much dragonflies as hymenopterans, and ate very few orthopterans. While at the Albertirsa colony, surrounded by agricultural fields and meadows in a more arid environment, hymenopterans dominated the prey, and orthopterans were almost as often consumed as dragonflies. Lepidopterans constituted approximately 8% of Bee-eaters’ diet in all colonies. From an insect ecological viewpoint, our study provides valuable data on the species pool that might be at risk of predation by Bee-eaters, and enables us to roughly estimate the predation pressure on some taxa, and in certain cases even on species by these birds.

P.1.j.012 Cerebral regions associated with inhibition control on working memory in schizophrenia and their voxel-based morphometry

Snakes were probably the first predators of mammals and may have been important agents of evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing rapid visual detection of fearful stimuli (Isbell, 2006). By means of early and late attention-related brain potentials, we examined the hypothesis that more early visual attention is automatically allocated to snakes than to spiders. To measure the early posterior negativity (EPN), 24 healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 snake pictures, 600 spider pictures, and 600 bird pictures (three pictures per second). To measure the late positive potential (LPP), they also watched similar pictures (30 pictures per stimulus category) in a non-speeded presentation. The EPN amplitude was largest for snake pictures, intermediate for spider pictures and smallest for bird pictures. The LPP was significantly larger for both snake and spider pictures when compared to bird pictures. Interestingly, spider fear (as measured by a questionnaire) was associated with EPN amplitude for spider pictures, whereas snake fear was not associated with EPN amplitude for snake pictures. The results suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention and that early attention to snakes is more innate and independent of reported fear.

How the brain distinguishes bugs from birds

The brain has specialized areas for recognizing categories such as faces and houses, but how does it distinguish items within a category? The authors showed human volunteers pictures of bugs, birds and primates and compared neural response patterns in the lateral occipital complex area with the volunteers' behavioural judgements of the pictures. This revealed a continuum of cortical activity patterns that reflected the degree of 'animacy' of the pictured animals (increasing from insects to birds to primates). Future studies may establish whether inanimate objects and humans are reflected on this same continuum of neural representations.

EVALUATING MERGER AND INTERSECTION OF EQUIVALENCE CLASSES WITH ONE MEMBER IN COMMON

Sidman (1994) noted that the existence of a member that is common to more than one class may produce either class merger (union) or class intersection. A multiple-selection, matching-to-sample test was developed to examine the conditions under which these outcomes occur. Test trials each required three conditional discriminations involving selection or rejection of comparison stimuli under control of samples representing two categories. Test results obtained from an initial group of typical adults using familiar stimuli (DOG and BIRD, pictures of dogs and birds and relevant printed breed names (e.g., DALMATIAN, RETRIEVER) showed the conditional stimulus control best described as intersection. For example, the word DALMATIAN provided the context for selecting the dalmatian but not the retriever picture. However, these results may have depended on the participants' verbal history as English speakers. Would conditional-discrimination training with overlapping sets of laboratory-generated stimuli also result in intersection? Naïve typical adults were assigned to one of three different training conditions. Like the participants tested with familiar stimuli, these participants demonstrated highly reliable test outcomes best described as showing class intersection, regardless of training condition. These findings begin to elucidate the necessary and sufficient conditions for establishing complex category-like classes of stimuli.

Category Training Induces Cross-modal Object Representations in the Adult Human Brain

The formation of cross-modal object representations was investigated using a novel paradigm that was previously successful in establishing unimodal visual category learning in monkeys and humans. The stimulus set consisted of six categories of bird shapes and sounds that were morphed to create different exemplars of each category. Subjects learned new cross-modal bird categories using a one-back task. Over time, the subjects became faster and more accurate in categorizing the birds. After 3 days of training, subjects were scanned while passively viewing and listening to trained and novel bird types. Stimulus blocks consisted of bird sounds only, bird pictures only, matching pictures and sounds (cross-modal congruent), and mismatching pictures and sounds (cross-modal incongruent). fMRI data showed unimodal and cross-modal training effects in the right fusiform gyrus. In addition, the left STS showed cross-modal training effects in the absence of unimodal training effects. Importantly, for both the right fusiform gyrus and the left STS, the newly formed cross-modal representation was specific for the trained categories. Learning did not generalize to incongruent combinations of learned sounds and shapes; their response did not differ from the response to novel cross-modal bird types. Moreover, responses were larger for congruent than for incongruent cross-modal bird types in the right fusiform gyrus and STS, providing further evidence that categorization training induced the formation of meaningful cross-modal object representations.

The Legacy of Oil Spills

The Legacy of Oil Spills

Christmas in the Missions of Northern New Spain

In 1982, native historian Joe Sando vividly described the Christmas season at Jémez Pueblo in northern New Mexico. Throughout the pueblo, figures of the Christ Child lay on display in homes in prominent, specially-decorated areas representing the stable in Bethlehem. During his childhood, Sando remembered that Hemish families roasted corn in their fireplaces, while elders drew pictures of wild game animals and birds, as well as important crops, on the wall next to the fireplace, in hopes that the birth of Christ would also result in the birth of the animals and plants drawn on the wall. In Jémez today, although the roasting of corn and drawings on the fireplace walls have been replaced by the exchange of gifts and watching television, some seasonal customs continue. Pine logs for communal bonfires rest neatly in square piles in front of each home. Christmas Eve bonfires attract the newborn Infant Jesus, and children gleefully play and dance around them. When the fires die out, the Hemish return to their homes to await midnight mass. After mass at the church, worshipers follow the newborn Infant in procession through the community. The next morning, as the first rays of daylight become visible in the east, animal dancers appear on the hilly skyline to the east and southwest. By the time the sun leaves the eastern horizon, the animals have arrived in the village, gathering in front of the drummers, who sing welcoming songs. The people arrive to welcome the animals, who process to the plaza, where they dance all day.

Christmas in the Missions of Northern New Spain

In 1982, native historian Joe Sando vividly described the Christmas season at Jémez Pueblo in northern New Mexico. Throughout the pueblo, figures of the Christ Child lay on display in homes in prominent, specially-decorated areas representing the stable in Bethlehem. During his childhood, Sando remembered that Hemish families roasted corn in their fireplaces, while elders drew pictures of wild game animals and birds, as well as important crops, on the wall next to the fireplace, in hopes that the birth of Christ would also result in the birth of the animals and plants drawn on the wall. In Jémez today, although the roasting of corn and drawings on the fireplace walls have been replaced by the exchange of gifts and watching television, some seasonal customs continue. Pine logs for communal bonfires rest neatly in square piles in front of each home. Christmas Eve bonfires attract the newborn Infant Jesus, and children gleefully play and dance around them. When the fires die out, the Hemish return to their homes to await midnight mass. After mass at the church, worshipers follow the newborn Infant in procession through the community. The next morning, as the first rays of daylight become visible in the east, animal dancers appear on the hilly skyline to the east and southwest. By the time the sun leaves the eastern horizon, the animals have arrived in the village, gathering in front of the drummers, who sing welcoming songs. The people arrive to welcome the animals, who process to the plaza, where they dance all day.

Are snakes and spiders special? Acquisition of negative valence and modified attentional processing by non-fear-relevant animal stimuli

Previous research has demonstrated differences in processing between fear-relevant stimuli, such as snakes and spiders, and non-fear-relevant stimuli. The current research examined whether non-fear-relevant animal stimuli, such as dogs, birds and fish, were processed like fear-relevant stimuli following aversive learning. Pictures of a priori fear-relevant animals, snakes and spiders, were evaluated as negative in affective priming and ratings and were preferentially attended to in a visual search task. Pictures of dogs, birds and fish that had been trained as CS+ in an aversive conditioning design were evaluated more negatively and facilitated dot probe detection relative to CS− pictures. The current studies demonstrated that stimuli viewed as positive prior to aversive learning were negative and were preferentially attended to after a brief learning episode. We propose that aversive learning may provide a mechanism for the acquisition of stimulus fear relevance.

Bird-watching at a dog show?

If an expert bird-watcher can instantly tell apart two similar species that are indistinguishable by an untrained observer, how do the brains of the expert and non-expert differ? James Tanaka and Tim Curran have uncovered part of the answer in an elegant study that used event-related potentials [Psychol. Sci. (2001) 12, 43–47]. Experts on birds and dogs, respectively, classified pictures of both types of animals. When bird experts saw pictures of birds, they had a stronger early negative component, called the N170, than when they saw pictures of dogs, for which they had no expertise. The opposite was true of dog experts. This double dissociation proves that the effect is due to expertise, not to the visual information presented. Interestingly, the N170 potential has also been tied to face recognition – a domain in which we are all experts. MW

Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine in Ethiopia

This text demonstrates the difference between Westerners' passive admiration of representational images and the intense interaction with art characteristic of native African and American cultures. Westerners may have extended the use of the art-image beyond the purely representational, but in Ethiopia the power transmitted from art to believers is actually used to heal. Art that Heals examines a variety of colourful objects: church frescos from the 15th to the 20th century, processional crosses, drawings, codices, and icons - all used by the clergy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church not as passive objects but as active forces to heal the sick. In particular, the book provides an analysis of key examples of the beautiful parchment scrolls used from the 18th to the 20th century. In Ethiopia when a person is physically, mentally, or spiritually ill a scroll is usually commissioned either by himself or his immediate family. Using a complex iconography developed from various religious traditions (ancient Greek, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish), the priest paints vivid images and writes prayers on the scroll to call upon God and the spirits who have caused the illness. In addition to abstract talismanic patterns and the frequent use of brightly coloured eyes, the scrolls often depict the story of Solomon or feature pictures of lions and birds. It is the trance induced by staring at this scroll that reputedly heals patients through their eyes. Investigating the iconography of these objects, this work explains the cultural and spiritual origins of each. These are images which challenge our whole perception of art.

Pigeon same-different concept learning with multiple stimulus classes.

Two experiments examined the acquisition and transfer of a complex same-different discrimination by pigeons. With the use of a 2-alternative choice task, 5 pigeons were reinforced for discriminating odd-item Different displays in which a contrasting target ws present, from Same displays, in which all elements were identical. Four different types of same-different displays were concurrently tested. The display types differed in their configuration (texture vs. visual search organization), the nature of their elements (small and large colored shapes; pictures of birds, flowers, fish, and humans), and the processing demands required by their global-local element arrangement. Despite these differences, the pigeons learned to discriminate all 4 display types at the same rate and showed positive discrimination transfer to novel examples of each type, suggesting that a single generalized rule was used to discriminate all display types. These results provide some of the strongest evidence yet that pigeons, like many primates, can learn an abstract, visually mediated same-different concept.

Sequential Assessment and Decision-Making in Humans

Abstract In two experiments inspired by theories of sequential information-gathering tasks such as sequential mate assessment, human subjects were asked to view sequences of pictures of mythical birds, each of which varied in value according to one of three stimuli, namely tail length, band width or intensity of black and carried an associated score. The subjects chose one picture from the sequence so as to maximise their points scored. Only one picture could be seen at a time, if a picture was rejected it could not be revisited and there was a small constant devaluation of each successive picture. In the first experiment two random sequences of each of the three stimuli were viewed and subjects were given no prior information on the population of pictures, nor was the devaluation specified. In the second experiment, which used only pictures which varied in tail length, subjects cach saw a different random sequence and then the same fixed sequence. In addition, they were told there was either a 5%, 10% or 20% devaluation of succesive birds, and half the subjects were given prior information on the population to be viewed. Thus in this experiment scores could be corrected for position in the sequence. To summarise the major results: 1. Choice was made at an early stage in the sequence, usually the 3rd, 4th or 5th picture, and this was consistent in both experiments. 2. In Experiment 2, subjects given prior information or smaller devaluation functions chose later in the sequence. 3. In Experiment 2 there were no differences in the corrected scores achieved by subjects in our treatments of prior information or devaluation, but subjects achieved higher absolute scores as the devaluation decreased. 4. In both experiments the value of the chosen picture was positively correlated with the mean value of the prior sequence seen when absolute scores are used, but in Experiment 2 this effect disappears when corrected scores are used. 5. A large positive jump was a cue to stop in both the random and fixed sequences. Identification of relevant variables and patterns of decision making may further enlarge our understanding of sequential assessment in humans and other animal species.

British Names for American Birds

Eighty-seven English names for British birds are used to denote birds native to central and eastern North America. Analysis reveals that English names for British birds are typically applied to those American birds, among all American birds, that are closest to the British birds in scientific (Linnaean) classification. This naming strategy accords with the finding of a similarity judgment experiment in which 34 subjects match realistic pictures of British and American birds for perceptual resemblance. The results of the experiment indicate that folk observers tend to judge those American birds, among all American birds, to be most similar to British birds that have the same name as the latter. In addition, the experiment suggests that folk perception of biological similarity is a better predictor of the detailed nature of folk biological classification than is scientific taxonomy.