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To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds

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A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 9646

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marco Dadda

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Guest Editor

Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Interests: brain lateralization; animal behaviour; animal cognition; perceptual learning and memory

Dr. Maria Santacà

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Guest Editor

Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Interests: animal behaviour; comparative cognition; perception

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding how the different species perceive the world has long interested philosophers and neuroscientists from ancient times to nowadays. Since their appearance on Earth, living organisms have evolved and adapted to just about every habitat. For many species, vision is the most important link to the world, allowing them to communicate, seek out food, avoid predators, or find a mate; however, it is not the only one. Owing to the great diversity of ecological niches, there are countless phenomenal worlds or different ways of ‘seeing’ the surroundings that reflect the different individual experiences and selective pressures that species have been subjected to. The purpose of this Special Issue is to review current work in the different phenomenal worlds, such as examinations of basic perceptual capacities and of the processing and cognitive mechanisms underlying perception, and to suggest future directions in this field. For this Special Issue, original experimental contributions and also theoretical/conceptual papers from different research areas related to any aspect of perceptual and cognitive systems are welcome.

Dr. Marco Dadda
Dr. Maria Santacà
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

perception
perceptual systems
cognitive systems
behaviour
cognition
evolution
adaptation

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 809 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study Replication: Shape Discrimination in a Conditioning Procedure on the Jumping Spider Phidippus regius

by Eleonora Mannino, Lucia Regolin, Enzo Moretto and Massimo De Agrò

Animals 2023, 13(14), 2326; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13142326 - 17 Jul 2023

Viewed by 807

Abstract

Spiders possess a unique visual system, split into eight different eyes and divided into two fully independent visual pathways. This peculiar organization begs the question of how visual information is processed, and whether the classically recognized Gestalt rules of perception hold true. In a previous experiment, we tested the ability of jumping spiders to associate a geometrical shape with a reward (sucrose solution), and then to generalize the learned association to a partially occluded version of the shape. The occluded shape was presented together with a broken version of the same shape. The former should be perceived as a whole shape only in the case the animals, like humans, are able to amodally complete an object partly hidden by an occluder; otherwise, the two shapes would be perceived as identical. There, the spiders learned the association but failed to generalize. Here, we present a replication of the experiment, with an increased number of subjects, a DeepLabCut-based scoring procedure, and an improved statistical analysis. The results of the experiment follow closely the direction of the effects observed in the previous work but fail to rise to significance. We discuss the importance of study replication, and we especially highlight the use of automated scoring procedures to maximize objectivity in behavioral studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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16 pages, 2909 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Learning by Using Non-Visual Geometry and a Visual 3D Landmark in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

by Greta Baratti, Sara Boffelli, Davide Potrich and Valeria Anna Sovrano

Animals 2023, 13(3), 440; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13030440 - 27 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1419

Abstract

Fish conjoin environmental geometry with conspicuous landmarks to reorient towards foraging sites and social stimuli. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) can merge a rectangular opaque arena with a 2D landmark (a blue-colored wall) but cannot merge a rectangular transparent arena with a 3D landmark (a blue cylinder) without training to “feel” the environment thanks to other-than-sight pathways. Thus, their success is linked to tasks differences (spontaneous vs. rewarded). This study explored the reorientation behavior of zebrafish within a rectangular transparent arena, with a blue cylinder outside, proximal to/distal from a target corner position, on the short/long side of the arena. Adult males were extensively trained to distinguish the correct corner from the rotational one, sharing an equivalent metric–sense relationship (short surface left, long surface right), to access food and companions. Results showed that zebrafish’s reorientation behavior was driven by both the non-visual geometry and the visual landmark, partially depending on the landmark’s proximity and surface length. Better accuracy was attained when the landmark was proximal to the target corner. When long-term experience was allowed, zebrafish handled non-visual and visual sensory stimulations over time for reorienting. We advance the possibility that multisensory processes affect fish’s reorientation behavior and spatial learning, providing a link through which to investigate animals’ exploratory strategies to face situations of visual deprivation or impairments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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12 pages, 1404 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seeing Things: A Community Science Investigation into Motion Illusion Susceptibility in Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris catus) and Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)

by Gabriella E. Smith, Philippe A. Chouinard, Isabel Lin, Ka Tak Tsoi, Christian Agrillo and Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere

Animals 2022, 12(24), 3562; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12243562 - 16 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2646

Abstract

Illusions—visual fields that distort perception—can inform the understanding of visual perception and its evolution. An example of one such illusion, the Rotating Snakes illusion, causes the perception of motion in a series of static concentric circles. The current study investigated pet dogs’ and cats’ perception of the Rotating Snakes illusion in a community science paradigm. The results reveal that neither species spent significantly more time at the illusion than at either of the controls, failing to indicate susceptibility to the illusion. Specific behavioral data at each stimulus reveal that the most common behaviors of both species were Inactive and Stationary, while Locomotion and Pawing were the least common, supporting the finding that susceptibility may not be present. This study is the first to examine susceptibility to the Rotating Snakes illusion in dogs, as well as to directly compare the phenomenon between dogs and cats. We suggest future studies might consider exploring alternative methods in testing susceptibility to motion illusions in non-human animals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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19 pages, 13273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CoFee-L: A Model of Animal Displacement in Large Groups Combining Cohesion Maintenance, Feeding Area Search and Transient Leadership

by Nikita Gavrilitchenko, Eva Gazagne, Nicolas Vandewalle, Johann Delcourt and Alain Hambuckers

Animals 2022, 12(18), 2412; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12182412 - 14 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1400

Abstract

In the tropics, the conservation of tree species is closely linked to that of animals, as a large proportion of trees are zoochoric and therefore rely on the movement of animals to disperse their seeds in order to increase the chances of the survival of progeny and to allow migration in the face of climate change. Research into the prediction of animal movements is therefore critical but has so far focused only on particular features of collective behavior. In contrast, we included the concepts of cohesion maintenance, feeding area search and transient leadership in a single model, CoFee-L, and tested it to simulate the movement of a wild-ranging troop of primates (Macaca leonina). We analyzed and compared observations and simulations with a statistical physics tool (mean squared displacement) and with histograms and χ² (for the step length and turning angle distributions). CoFee-L allowed us to simulate the physical properties of the troop’s center of mass trajectory as well as the step length and angle distributions of the field data. The parametrization of CoFee-L was rather straightforward, as it was sufficient to fix a set of parameters easily observable in the field and then to adjust the values of four parameters that have biological meaning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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12 pages, 2075 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Processing Individually Distinctive Schematic-Faces Supports Proto-Arithmetical Counting in the Young Domestic Chicken

by Rosa Rugani, Maria Loconsole, Michael Koslowski and Lucia Regolin

Animals 2022, 12(18), 2322; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12182322 - 07 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1295

Abstract

A key signature of small-number processing is the difficulty in discriminating between three and four objects, as reported in infants and animals. Five-day-old chicks overcome this limit if individually distinctive features characterize each object. In this study, we have investigated whether processing individually different face-like objects can also support discrimination between three and four objects. Chicks were reared with seven face-like stimuli and tested in the proto-arithmetic comparison 1 + 1 + 1 vs. 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. Birds reared and tested with all different faces discriminated and approached the larger group (Exp. 1), whereas new birds reared and tested with seven identical copies of one same face failed (Exp. 2). The presence at test of individually different faces allowed discrimination even when chicks were reared with copies of one face (Exp. 3). To clarify the role of the previous experience of at least one specific arrangement of facial features, in Experiment 4, featureless faces were employed during rearing. During testing, chicks were unable to discriminate between three and four individually distinct faces. Results highlight the importance of having experienced at least one “face” in prompting individual processing and proto-arithmetical calculation later during testing. We speculate that mechanisms effective at the non-symbolic level may positively affect numerical performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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Review

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12 pages, 1153 KiB

Open AccessReview

Consistently Inconsistent Perceptual Illusions in Nonhuman Primates: The Importance of Individual Differences

by Michael J. Beran and Audrey E. Parrish

Animals 2023, 13(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13010022 - 21 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1391

Abstract

Perceptual illusions, and especially visual illusions, are of great interest not only to scientists, but to all people who experience them. From a scientific perspective, illusory visual experiences are informative about the nature of visual processes and the translation of sensory experiences to perceptual information that can then be used to guide behavior. It has been widely reported that some nonhuman species share these illusory experiences with humans. However, it is consistently the case that not all members of a species experience illusions in the same way. In fact, individual differences in susceptibility may be more typical than universal experiences of any given illusion. Focusing on research with the same nonhuman primates who were given a variety of perceptual illusion tasks, this “consistent inconsistency” is clearly evident. Additionally, this can even be true in assessments of human illusory experiences. Individual differences in susceptibility offer an important avenue for better understanding idiosyncratic aspects of visual perception, and the goal of isolating any possible universal principles of visual perception (in primates and beyond) should address these individual differences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To See or Not to See: Current Progress in the Understanding of the Different Phenomenal Worlds)

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